Ron Desantis Applauding Florida’s 1st Covid Vaccine Rollout

In Delray, DeSantis stresses patience and medical workers and elderly first in vaccine rollout.

DELRAY BEACH — A day after Palm Beach County's vaccination hotline crashed as anxious seniors and medical personnel called to schedule appointments, Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed that, after Florida's frontline medical workers are vaccinated, the state's top priority for COVID-19 vaccinations will be residents over age 65.

"I think everyone's on the same page to say that once these nurses and doctors and other medical personnel get it, we want to work with our elderly population to be able to offer it to them," DeSantis said Wednesday during an appearance at the Kings Point retirement community, where 300 of 12,000 residents were scheduled to receive the coronavirus vaccine after the governor spoke.

Both DeSantis and Dr. Alina Alonso, head of the Palm Beach County Health Department, offered candid advice to seniors looking to get vaccinated.

More:Coronavirus: High volume of calls swamp Palm Beach County's vaccination hotline

"We don't have enough vaccine currently on hand for all four million-plus senior citizens in the state of Florida," DeSantis said. "And we will get there but it's not going to happen overnight. So please be patient."

The Palm Beach County Health Department’s attempt to help seniors turned into a nightmare Tuesday when more than 1,000 phone calls began streaming into the vaccination hotline that could only handle 150 calls at a time.

"All the senior citizens are calling and all the doctors are calling,” a frustrated and overwhelmed Alonso said.

Instead of getting their questions answered and their fears allayed, seniors and other callers were greeted with a dead line.

The protocol for vaccinating seniors and front-line medical professionals in hospitals will vary from county to county, DeSantis said. The first batch of the 180,000 two-dose vaccines by Pfizer were divvied up between five hospital systems throughout Florida, DeSantis said.

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Some of those vaccines also were earmarked for CVS and Walgreens for the "long-term care facility mission," DeSantis added. Another 20,000 were reserved for members of the state's "strike team" who will go into facilities and vaccinate residents.