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New Moderna vaccine making its way to Florida
The state is expected to get 367,000 doses of Moderna's new COVID-19 vaccine.
ORLANDO, Fla. - Any day now, Florida is expected to get 367,000 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
Millions of doses of the vaccine were loaded onto a plane in Kentucky Sunday and shipped across the country.
In total, 173 hospitals in 43 counties in Florida will be getting the Moderna vaccine, including Orlando Health, AdventHealth, Halifax Health, and UF Health.
Governor Ron DeSantis said as doctors continue administering the Pfizer vaccine, they will also administer the Moderna vaccine.
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"As the vaccine supply increases over the coming weeks, we want to get it out to our elderly residents as well as those who have significant underlying health conditions."
Healthcare workers with a high-risk of exposure to COVID-19 and residents and staff at long-term healthcare facilities are being vaccinated with the first shipments of the vaccine, according to the distribution guidelines established by the governor.
The U.S. is the first country to authorize use for two COVID-19 vaccines. AdventHealth Doctor Steven Smith said it is a big milestone.
"Having two vaccines will give us a lot of confidence about being able to continue to vaccinate and in fact boost up the numbers of the people we can vaccinate through December into January," Dr. Smith said.
Dr. Craig Deligdish, president and CEO of Omni Healthcare in Brevard County said, "While we will be having many more doses available to us, every day that we delay in administering this vaccine, thousands of Americans are dying."
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During a news conference Friday, he suggested vaccinating more people now.
"As opposed to holding the second dose in storage in a warehouse, we can administer those doses now. There's no reason to hold those doses back when we have tremendous confidence that companies like Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson will be able to produce additional doses."
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