Florida broke its recent trend of fewer new COVID cases on Thursday for the first time since early February as 6,640 new cases were reported by the Florida Department of Health.
Florida is on pace for the fewest administered first vaccine doses since the onset of the vaccine rollout this week. According to the FDOH, fewer than 25,000 first doses of a COVID vaccine were administered on Wednesday. Over the past seven days, fewer than 200,000 first dose vaccines have been made available to Floridians. That total is expected to rise next week, however our state is still scheduled to receive 18% fewer vaccines than our share relative to our state’s population.
Governor DeSantis is expected to officially announce an expansion of eligibility for Florida’s COVID vaccines in advance of March starting on Monday. The expansion is expected to include teachers and members of law enforcement 50 and older at four FEMA operated vaccination sites that are located in Miami, Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville.
Lastly, the governor called Palm Beach County’s decision to ignore the governor’s order to lower flags at half-staff, petty. DeSantis released a statement saying, "it is unfortunate that Palm Beach County would rather engage in petty politics than honor the death of one of their county’s and state’s most prominent residents and a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient."
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