3/25/2021

Governor Ron DeSantis Announces New Eligibility Guidelines for COVID-19 Vaccinations

Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced new eligibility guidelines for COVID-19 vaccinations in Florida.

Beginning Monday, March 29, all individuals age 40 and older will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Beginning the following Monday, April 5, all individuals age 18 and older will be eligible to receive the vaccine.

Floridians are encouraged to pre-register at www.myvaccine.fl.gov. Once pre-registered, they’ll be contacted when the vaccine is available in their area. Floridians can also call the vaccine preregistration phone number for their county, listed here.

Vaccines are also available at 150 CVS locations, 125 Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club locations, more than 70 Winn Dixie locations, soon-to-be over 600 Walgreens pharmacies, and every single one of the 730 Publix pharmacies across the state.

Watch the Governor’s announcement by clicking the image below or clicking HERE. 

Text from Governor DeSantis’ video message as delivered is provided below:

Hi, this is Governor Ron DeSantis.

Florida’s Seniors First vaccine strategy is paying off — more than 3.2 million seniors age 65 and older have received shots. 

We’ve been able to expand eligibility to those age 50 and above and we’ve seen additional success.

Now because of this success, I am pleased to announce additional vaccine eligibility expansions. 

While the Biden administration set a May 1^st target date for vaccine eligibility for all adults, Florida is pleased to announce that all adults in the state age 18 and older will be eligible for the vaccine beginning Monday, April 5^th.

And this coming Monday, March 29^th, the age of eligibility for the vaccine will be reduced from 50 to 40.

We have now vaccinated over 70% of the roughly 4.4 million seniors living in the state.

We have also made great progress on those age 60 to 64 and those age 50 and older.

And we are ready to take this step.

If you look at the hospitalization and case rates for senior citizens, they have plummeted since the start of our Seniors First strategy.

And we want to keep up that momentum as we expand eligibility to other age groups throughout the state of Florida.

Florida continues to rank 41^st in senior mortality per capita, with 40 states having higher mortality for COVID on a per capita basis than the state of Florida.

We’ve stood up more than 100 county sites and state sites. We’ve also brought the vaccine directly to underserved communities.

We’ve partnered with pharmacy retailers to offer the vaccine. There are now 1,600 pharmacies located throughout the state of Florida offering COVID vaccines.

730 Publix pharmacies.

More than 150 CVS locations.

More than 125 Sam’s Club and Walmart locations.

More than 70 Winn-Dixie locations.

And in the coming days, Walgreens will be expanding to more than 400 additional locations, bringing their total to more than 600 Walgreens pharmacy locations statewide.

We’ve established a program for homebound seniors and have vaccinated more than 5,000 seniors, including holocaust survivors and World War II veterans.

We’ve held 71 faith-based events in 22 counties and have completed more than 73,000 vaccinations at those events.

We’ve also held events at 31 senior communities across the state, which account for over 140,000 vaccinations.

We have made great progress and I look forward to continuing to work hard to make sure everyone in Florida who wants a shot, can get a shot.

No mandate, but access for all.

God bless you and thank you very much.