MIAMI, Fla. – South Florida should be getting the very first doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine early next week.
The two-dose vaccine was authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use Friday.
Florida is expected to receive 179,400 doses of the vaccine, which will go to five Florida hospital systems, including Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami-Dade County and Memorial West in Broward county. Some of the doses arriving at Jackson Memorial will then continue on to 13 other hospitals in Miami-Dade County.
60,000 vials of the vaccine will go directly to Walgreens and CVS pharmacies throughout the state, while 20,000 will be reserved specifically for a pilot program involving staff and residents at assisted living and skilled nursing facilities in Broward County and also Pinellas County.
Thomas Macaluso, M.D., Memorial West’s interim chief medical officer, calls the development fantastic news.
“This is really what we’ve been waiting for for a long time, and we’re very excited that it’s happened as quickly as it did,” he said.
(See the fact sheet recipients will be given before they are administered the vaccine.)
The nation’s first COVID-19 vaccine will begin arriving in states Monday, U.S. officials said Saturday. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told ABC that the FDA would work with Pfizer to get the vaccine shipped so that vaccinations could start as early as Monday or Tuesday of next week.
The general population most likely won’t be receiving the vaccine until spring or summer 2021.
Florida’s confirmed coronavirus cases are over 1 million and 19,785 residents have died, according to the Florida Department of Health.
On Saturday morning, the FDA held a press conference about allowing emergency use of the vaccine.