LEE COUNTY, Fla. – CVS Pharmacy will be receiving more COVID-19 vaccine doses and expanding its inoculations across Florida beginning Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced from a pharmacy in Lee County.
Select CVS Pharmacies have already been providing vaccines at select stores across the state but the company will add 76 new locations bringing the total to more than 150 pharmacies in 30 counties. Appointments for all new locations will be available beginning Thursday on the CVS.com portal and shots will begin Friday.
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Seven of those new locations will be in Lee County, where the governor made the announcement Tuesday, and 69 other locations will be spread out across Alachua, Broward Charlotte, Collier, Columbia, Duval, Escambia, Gulf, Hamilton, Hernando, Hillsborough, Leon, Marion, Miami-Dade, Orange, Osceola, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Putnam, Seminole, St. John and Volusia counties.
This comes as Florida prepares to expand its vaccine eligibility groups to include people 60 years and older beginning Monday.
Under a federal mandate teachers, school staff and child care workers of any age can also be vaccinated. Under Florida vaccine eligibility groups: K-12 school employees, law enforcement officers and firefighters, all 50 and older, can also get vaccinated.
DeSantis said while the state will continue with state-supported vaccine sites and doesn’t see those going away anytime soon he believes retail locations will be key to expanding the vaccine to more people.
CVS, CVS Pharmacy y más, Navarro Discount Pharmacy, Publix, Winn-Dixie and Walmart pharmacies are also offering vaccines in Florida by appointment.
“The retail footprint is something we want to continue to expand. We’ve spoken with CVS, we’d like to continue to do even more CVSs throughout the state of Florida. I mentioned we are going to probably do another Walgreens would be really, really good,” DeSantis said. “This really is the easiest way for people to go. Just make an appointment come into your local pharmacy, do it.”
Find a list of CVS Pharmacy locations and make an appointment for a vaccine here.
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