Florida is planning to get COVID-19 vaccines to more than 150 hospitals by next week
The Florida official in charge of coronavirus vaccine distribution said Tuesday that the news of Moderna’s likely federal authorization puts the state on a timeline to vaccinate front-line healthcare workers at more than 150 hospitals within the next two weeks.
By 10:45 on Tuesday morning, about 100,000 doses of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine had been delivered to the five hospitals in the state’s pilot program — including Jackson Health System in Miami-Dade and Memorial Healthcare System in Broward, which inoculated its first workers Monday, according to Jared Moskowitz, the director of the state’s Division of Emergency Management.
As those hospitals inoculate their workers and those at 25 additional hospitals this week, the state is preparing plans for next week, when it expects to receive 300,000 to 400,000 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, which is anticipated to be authorized as early as Friday, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis and media reports. Both vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective according to limited preliminary data, some of which was released Tuesday.
Justin Senior, president of the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida, said the timeline of Florida’s vaccine rollout to hospitals was “really great news, and it’s game changing.”
“It puts the state in a significantly better position to fight this pandemic than it was as recently as two days ago,” Senior said.
In an interview with the Miami Herald on Tuesday, Moskowitz, who oversees the state’s distribution of vaccines, said the Moderna vaccines would also go to first responders and residents of long-term care facilities. He said the Florida Department of Health strike teams in Pinellas and Broward counties tasked with delivering 20,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to long-term care facilities received their shipments Tuesday morning and would begin inoculating residents this week.
Moskowitz said it was still too early to tell how far through the first phase of vaccine distribution Florida will get by the end of the year, but it’s a significant percentage.
“We’re going to be extremely aggressive,” he said.
Moskowitz added that the percentage of those willing to take the vaccine will also have an impact on how widespread the inoculation is this year.
“Obviously, as we roll the vaccine out and talk to all the groups and see what the acceptance rate is, that will dictate how much extra vaccine or what additional groups can come on early,” he said.
At-risk seniors are next on the list
After front-line healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities, next up would be those 65 and older with underlying health conditions who live outside of long-term care settings, Moskowitz said. Following that, all at-risk individuals regardless of age would be next.
“That decision has not been finalized, but that is the planning assumption,” Moskowitz said.
Senior said widespread inoculation against COVID-19 in 150 hospitals throughout the state, would insulate healthcare facilities from any future surges.
“You can do all the infection control you want in the hospital, but your workers can still catch it in the community and are going to fall offline,” he said. “If you can get them protected, you’ve really changed the game.”
This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 11:21 AM.
