FL To Lower Vaccine Eligibility Age To 60 Years Old March 15

FLORIDA — Florida will lower the COVID-19 vaccine eligibility age to 60 years old starting March 15, Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a Monday press conference.

Currently, seniors 64 and older are eligible to be vaccinated. That age range, as well as the state’s frontline health care workers, and residents and staff of long-term care facilities, were the first groups allowed to receive the vaccine under the governor’s orders when it first rolled out in December.

DeSantis expanded that eligibility further March 1 to include all K-12 school personnel, police officers and firefighters in the state who are 50 and older.

And though those determined to be medically vulnerable have been eligible for the vaccine through hospitals since December, the governor made it easier for those in this group to get vaccinated with his March 1 executive order. The state created a “COVID-19 Determination of Extreme Vulnerability” form for physicians to fill out.

“You’re starting to see the (vaccine) demand soften a bit,” DeSantis said, according to WFLA. “The pharmacies have their windows to sign up, and they’re not gone in 10 minutes like they were a month and a half ago. Sometimes the window will be open for an hour.”

The governor said that sometime this week Florida will reach the 3 million mark for vaccinated seniors. More than 56 percent of the state’s seniors have received at least the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine as of Monday, reports said.

The announcement of age eligibility lowering soon came as nearly 3,500 new coronavirus cases were reported Monday, according to state data. There have been nearly 1.95 million total COVID-19 cases in Florida since the start of the pandemic.