POMPANO BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - Seniors 65 and older received their doses of the COVID-19 vaccine at John Knox Village.
The group of seniors gathered at 651 SW 6th St. in Pompano Beach to receive their second dose of the vaccine, Tuesday.
Officials said in seven to 10 days after the vaccine is administered, they should be fully protected from the coronavirus. They also said that the vaccines will be administered by retail pharmacies in select stores across the state of Florida.
“Beginning on Friday, there will be 119 Walmarts stores across 34 counties that will begin offering COVID-19 vaccinations for senior citizens,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Vaccination efforts are going to quickly speed up this week as retail pharmacies begin to offer COVID-19 vaccines.
This includes Walmart stores in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, the Southwest Miami-Dade Fresco y Mas on Southwest 137th Avenue, Winn Dixie supermarkets in Miami-Dade County, Publix in Monroe County, and Sam’s Clubs in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Anyone with an appointment does not need to be a Sam’s Club member.
DeSantis added that the vaccines are still only available to those 65 and older and frontline healthcare workers.
“We gotta do our seniors first. Keep our eye on the ball. Once we begin to see some softening in the demand, then we’re gonna need to get the footprint wider,” DeSantis said.
On Tuesday, the state reported 7,000 new cases of the virus and a positivity rate of 7%.
The White House COVID-19 response team said in addition to retail pharmacies receiving the vaccine, community health centers across the country will also be sent their own doses.
And all of that is on top of an already increasing stockpile.
“We will increase weekly vaccine doses going to states, tribes, and territories to 11 million, so that is a total of a 28% increase in vaccine supply across the first three weeks,” said White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients.
“I’d like to know that I’m safe and that we can get back to living the way we used to,” said vaccine recipient Katherine Frazer.
At John Knox Village in Pompano Beach, it was an exciting day as residents of the senior community received their second dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
Seniors showed up at the facility, showed their CDC card, received their shot, then waited in a room for 15 minutes before they left and carried on with their day.
Some recipients, like Marilyn Askin, said they are looking forward to returning to some form of normalcy and see their families again.
“I’ll get all my computer needs taken care of, among other things, and just being able to hug and kiss and love them is very exciting,” Askin said.
Of the 750 recipients, 600 of them live at John Knox Village. The other 140 are employees of the facility.
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