The Jacksonville, another 6 Florida site offers COVID-19 vaccinations Sunday in partnership with churches

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Seven sites in Florida, including one in Jacksonville, offered COVID-19 vaccinations on Sunday in partnership with places of worship, Governor Ron DeSantis said.

“We really think it’s important to make sure these vaccines fit into all segments of the community, and we believe that working with our houses of worship is one way you can do that,” DeSantis told a news conference Sunday morning. in Lynn Haven. “We started doing one at Pensacola last Saturday. He was very successful. “

On Sunday at 9 a.m., St. Matthew’s Baptist Church in Moncrief, Jacksonville, began administering 500 pre-selected doses of the vaccine to people 65 and older. Rovenia Brooks and her husband, Earl, received the first dose of the vaccine there and said they were scheduled to receive the second dose in a few weeks.

„Our church – Mt. Sinai (Missionary Baptist Church), Pastor (RL) Gundy – they called us at home, asked us if we wanted to shoot, “said Rovenia Brooks.” At first, I was nervous, so I said no. Then the next day, Friday, I called him and called him back at church and he said he was calling Audrey Gibson’s office (state senator) and let the secretary take your name and put it on the role for Mt. Sinai, so I did that. “

Donald Foy also explained to News4Jax how he gained access to the shooting.

“The appointment was actually made, a pastor friend, went through his trial online and I received it through Senator Audrey Gibson’s office,” Foy said. “This went through the process and I was able to go in and get it.”

In addition to Jacksonville and Lynn Haven, DeSantis said, the sites that operate Sunday were in Tallahassee, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, St. Lucia and Tampa. He said there were 50 different houses of worship, many of them predominantly African American churches, that attended.

“It’s a lot of teamwork,” he said. “It was the state that provided the resources. The city and county worked with all the churches to make this happen, so they appointed each church as many times as it received, and then the pastor worked to bring in a few elderly citizens for those individuals. ori ”.

The governor said the priority remains to provide vaccinations for the elderly.

“We put seniors first,” DeSantis said. “We do it in a variety of ways. You see, some of these big hospital systems are now starting to eliminate a lot of vaccinations. We appreciate that. You also look at some of the county’s health departments that work in their communities to vaccinate the elderly. Take a look at some of the state-sponsored access sites, as well as some of the locals across Florida. This was very convenient. And then our partnership with Publix. “

As of Sunday, according to the Florida Department of Health, 558,326 people in Florida had been vaccinated, including 275,771 people aged 65 and over.

Hopefully, DeSantis said, the state is scheduled to receive about 250,000 additional photos from the first dose next week. He added that he was asked if Florida could get more.

News4Jax contacted the Florida Department of Health to confirm who was responsible for booking appointments at St. Matthew’s Baptist Church, but had not received a response since Sunday afternoon.