LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday announced that 76 more CVS pharmacies in Florida will begin administering vaccines later this week.
Appointments open up on Thursday on CVS.com for vaccinations that will begin the following day.
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The additional stores that will offer the vaccines are spread across 30 Florida counties including Alachua, Putnam, Duval, St. Johns and Columbia. The exact locations of all the stores were not immediately released.
DeSantis said each store will have the ability to do 100 to 200 shots per day.
As vaccine production increases, local retail pharmacies will become the focus of vaccination efforts, he added.
“The retail footprint is something we want to continue to expand,” DeSantis said during a press conference at a CVS store in Southwest Florida. “We’ve spoken with CVS, we’d like to continue to do even more CVS’s throughout the state of Florida. Once it gets beyond the seniors, once we get, not unlimited, but a lot of J&J and some of the other vaccines, this really is the easiest way for people to go.”
That means there won’t be as much of a need for mass vaccination sites moving forward, DeSantis added.
With the additional stores coming online Friday, 157 CVS stores will be offering shots. There are also 730 Publix pharmacies offering shots, 119 Walmart stores and 43 Winn-Dixie stores giving shots.
DeSantis said an announcement about more Walgreens stores that will begin offering vaccines is coming soon.
On Monday the state will lower the age for people to get a COVID-19 vaccine from 65 to 60.
