HIALEAH, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference Tuesday morning at a Navarro Discount Pharmacy in Hialeah, at which time he announced that all 31 Navarro and 35 CVS Y Mas stores in Miami-Dade County will soon begin administering COVID-19 vaccines to seniors 65 and older.
The governor said 15 traditional CVS stores across Florida would also begin administering the vaccine to seniors, including one in Miami-Dade County, two in Broward and one in Palm Beach County.
Appointments must be made to receive the vaccine.
According to DeSantis, qualifying individuals will be able to make an appointment beginning Wednesday by visiting cvs.com. This includes for appointments at any Navarro location.
The governor said there will be an option for people to input their zip code to find their nearest participating pharmacy.
The pharmacies have received their first shipments of the vaccine and expect to begin administering them on Thursday.
A spokesperson for Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez told Local 10 News reporter Christina Vazquez that the mayor was not invited to Tuesday’s news conference, but said the mayor planned to attend regardless to hear what the governor had to say.
Hernandez has previously been critical of DeSantis and expressed his frustration last summer when he was not invited to a coronavirus roundtable in South Florida where mayors from various other cities were present.
DeSantis did not address the mayor during the news conference, but Hernandez walked up to the podium after DeSantis finished speaking and addressed the crowd, calling the governor disrespectful for not inviting him the press conference and saying that Hialeah has not gotten the proper attention it deserves during the pandemic.
“We’re the epicenter. We’ve been the epicenter,” he said.
The governor, however, praised the state’s handling of vaccine distribution for seniors, highlighting that more than 2 million seniors have been vaccinated across the state, including 42% of seniors in Miami-Dade County.
He said the state is close to vaccinating 50% of seniors across Florida, and said that 45% or 46% of seniors have been vaccinated so far in the state.