TAMPA, Fla. — — With the addition of a third COVID-19 vaccine, dose allocations for the state of Florida continue to increase, allowing more and more people to get vaccinated.
Looking ahead to next week, vaccine allocations could nearly double, and experts say, it’s only expediting our road to normalcy.
The Biden Administration had a goal when they took office: 100 million COVID-19 doses in 100 days.
“I thought it was really ambitious that they were gonna do 100 million doses in 100 days, and that would’ve been a million doses a day. The last number that I saw, they were doing 1.8 million doses a day, so they’re doing much better than I ever thought they could,” said Dr. Thomas Unnasch, Distinguished Professor at USF.
A number increasing nationally as Johnson and Johnson’s one-dose shot entered the picture. And here in Florida, our vaccine allocations are increasing too.
“What we’ve been averaging so far, has been about 75,000 doses a day,” said Dr. Unnasch.
That number could nearly double with the number of vaccines the state of Florida is set to get next week, so long as the state has the staffing and appointment availability to offer up all of those doses.
According to the CDC, Pfizer and Moderna are set to send 940,160 total doses to Florida for next week’s allocation. That's over 134,000 doses a day, however, the state has so far not administered their entire amount of available COVID-19 doses each day. This week, the two companies sent a total of 895,700 doses.
Johnson and Johnson sent the state 175,100 doses Thursday night, and according to Governor Ron DeSantis, they won't be sending additional doses for 2 weeks.
“I especially like the fact that it is one dose,” said Jacqueline Bee, a U.S. Veteran who got her dose of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine Friday.
“I think it’s more convenient to only have one shot,” said Gerald Peat, a U.S. Veteran who got his dose of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine Friday.
Jacqueline and Gerald were some of the first to get those early doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital Friday.
From here on out, the hope is that vaccine allocations will continue to increase.
“If we even stick with the rates that we’re going on now just with the Moderna and the Pfizer vaccines, and assume that the Johnson and Johnson vaccine doesn’t even make it in, we’ll still be able to vaccinate everybody who is eligible who wants to have the vaccine by the end of June,” said Dr. Unnasch.
So a normal 4th of July might be in the cards, so long as we double-down in the meantime.
“We can’t afford to declare victory early because if we do, it could turn around and bite us,” said Dr. Unnasch.
To view the CDC’s vaccine allocations for Moderna, click here; for Pfizer, click here; and for Johnson and Johnson, click here.