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ORLANDO, Fla. – Thousands of AdventHealth employees were part of a historic first for the coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday morning.
About 20,000 frontline workers have signed up to receive a dose of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, and healthcare professionals working in intensive care and COVID-19 units will be some of the first in line, according to the system. hospitable.
Distribution began early Wednesday, and the initial shipment will last until next Tuesday, said Dr. Neil Finkler, medical director for AdventHealth’s Central Florida Division. Finkler added that the hospital system does not require employees to be vaccinated, and said it is purely voluntary.
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These workers are some of the first people to receive the experimental coronavirus vaccine in the nation, state, and Central Florida region.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that the next step will be to implement vaccines in long-term care facilities across the state. DeSantis added that it’s all part of the state’s plan to protect Florida’s most vulnerable and at-risk populations. Those efforts are also scheduled to begin Wednesday.
[MORE COVERAGE: Florida announces delay in delivery of Pfizer vaccine | Residents at Florida long-term care facilities could soon receive COVID-19 vaccine]
“It is very, very significant that we provide vaccines to anyone in a nursing home who wants them. Obviously, they are at the highest risk of contracting the most infections, ”DeSantis said.
The Florida governor also announced Tuesday that there is a delay in hundreds of thousands of doses of the Pfizer vaccine due to production problems.
DeSantis said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was unmoved by the delay to greenlight Moderna Inc.’s coronavirus vaccine later this week. The first batch of the company’s vaccine could begin heading to Florida as early as this weekend, allowing for wider distribution of the drug to hospitals across the state.
The FDA gave an initial and promising review of Moderna’s vaccine on Monday, saying it was 94.1% effective against the coronavirus.
By the end of December, Florida could be distributing two coronavirus vaccines.
Florida Director of Emergency Management Jared Moskowitz said in an exclusive interview with News 6 that the promise of a widely distributed vaccine could be the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moskowitz is in charge of vaccine distribution in Florida.
[WATCH BELOW: Mass vaccination facilities across Florida are coming]
Moskowitz said the general public will likely have access to the coronavirus vaccine in early spring.
“I think it’s a timeline from March to April,” Moskowitz said. “People talk about the summer, but I think it could happen before the summer. One, because production is going to increase, and two, I don’t know if we will see significant acceptance of the vaccine in the first months ”.
Moskowitz and his team are focusing on vaccine distribution and acceptance, in the hope that a public awareness campaign and messages can convince Floridians to get vaccinated and build protection against the virus.
While Moskowitz is planning plans for mass vaccination facilities across the state and public distribution, Florida continues to report thousands of new cases daily.
On Wednesday, Florida reported 11,355 new COVID-19 infections. The state has seen 1,155,335 cases since March. More than 20,400 people have died from the virus since the start of the pandemic.
Moskowitz stressed that Floridians should continue to socially distance themselves, wear masks and wash their hands until everyone has access to the vaccine.
If you are having trouble viewing the dashboard on a mobile device, click here.
[READ YESTERDAY’S REPORT: Florida reports more than 9,400 new COVID-19 cases as more vaccine shipments arrive]
Cases
The Florida Department of Health reported 11,344 new cases Wednesday, bringing the statewide total to 1,155,335 cases since March.
Editor’s Note: Along with resources previously used by News 6 (state and county by county data), as of December 7, WKMG has added state data drawn from the Florida Department of Health COVID19 State Test Totals. This new data set includes the number of people who were tested the day before, which is the number public health officials use to calculate the state’s daily positivity rate.
Deceased
Florida reported 125 new virus deaths on Wednesday. This means at least 20,490 people have died in connection with the coronavirus statewide, including 286 nonresidents who died in Florida.
Hospitalizations
As of Wednesday afternoon, there is currently 5,156 people with the virus hospitalized in Florida, according to the state Agency for Health Care Administration, an increase of approximately 150 patients in 24 hours.
Since March, 58,969 people have been hospitalized in Florida following complications from the coronavirus. That number includes the 357 People have recently been hospitalized due to the virus, according to the health department report.
Positivity rate
The positivity rate for the 122,187 tests reported on Wednesday was 9.28%. This statistic is the number of people who tested positive for the first time based on test results reported to the state on Tuesday.
See the COVID-19 data for the Central Florida region below:
| County | Cases | New cases | Hospitalizations | New Hospitalizations | Deceased | New deaths |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevard | 18,301 | 220 | 1,332 | sixteen | 486 | 2 |
| Flagler | 3,137 | 31 | 208 | 2 | 46 | 0 |
| lake | 12,727 | 156 | 901 | 5 | 275 | 0 |
| Marion | 15,218 | 140 | 1,232 | 8 | 428 | 0 |
| orange | 65, 975 | 724 | 1,838 | eleven | 684 | 3 |
| Osceola | 22,057 | 224 | 1,023 | 9 | 272 | 1 |
| Polk | 31,996 | 328 | 3,203 | twenty | 735 | 5 |
| Seminole | 15,757 | 169 | 867 | 3 | 301 | 2 |
| Sumter | 4,154 | 87 | 361 | 6 | 109 | 2 |
| Volusia | 19,072 | 211 | 1,203 | 3 | 398 | 2 |
To keep up to date with the latest news on the pandemic, subscribe to News 6’s coronavirus newsletter And go to ClickOrlando.com/coronavirus.
Copyright 2020 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.
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