After receiving about 266,000 weekly initial vaccine doses from the federal government, DeSantis said a larger quantity of 307,000 doses is expected to arrive Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. That freed up extra doses for the new allocation for the medically vulnerable.
“What we didn’t want, though, is if we’re putting it in pharmacies and we’re doing drive-thru sites, to have a pharmacist or a nurse have to referee someone’s comorbidity: ‘Oh, that doesn’t count.’ So we said this is something that the doctors have to handle," DeSantis said.
"It’s got to be in the confines of a hospital system," he said.
Two days before Christmas, DeSantis' original executive order on COVID-19 vaccinations approved doses for three populations: long-term-care facility residents and staff; people 65 years and older; and health care personnel with direct patient contact.
In addition, DeSantis' executive order said hospital providers may vaccinate persons "who they deem to be extremely vulnerable to COVID-19."