LONGWOOD, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis moved Monday to assure residents that his office is prioritizing the COVID-19 vaccination of seniors and mobilizing efforts to ensure that vaccines be administered as quickly as possible.

Speaking at Orlando Health Seminole South Hospital, DeSantis urged Florida hospitals to expand vaccination services to seven days a week and said the state would transfer vaccine allocations from hospitals that don’t do a “good job” of administering vaccines.

“We'll have their allocations transferred to hospitals that are doing a good job in getting the vaccine out,” he said. “We do not want vaccines to just be idle.”

Regarding seniors, DeSantis pointed out that a committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended in late December that essential workers and adults age 75 and older follow front-line health-care workers as priority groups for the vaccines.

“We don't believe that's the best approach for our state,” DeSantis said. “We believe we’ve got to focus on senior citizens, and so here, the seniors are the priority.”

“We don't want a situation where someone's 20 years old, working at a grocery store, which is an honorable thing and great, but that person gets priority over a 74-year-old or a 73-year-old grandmother?" he added. "No, we've got to focus on seniors and put our seniors first.”

DeSantis spoke as COVID-19 cases in Florida approached 1.4 million and as supply of vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna haven't been able to keep up with demand across the state, most notably this week in Lake, Volusia, Hernando, and Manatee counties, among other areas.

The governor said at his news briefing that Florida would “continue our aggressive approach to increase vaccinations” through measures including:

• the possible conversion of state-run testing sites into vaccine sites;
• the identification of places of worship as vaccination sites in underserved communities;
• the deployment of 1,000 additional nurses throughout the state; and
• the acceleration of the pace of vaccinations at long-term-care facilities through Florida’s Emergency Response Team.

“As we enter the new year, I think there’s a lot of reason for optimism,” DeSantis said. Hospitals throughout the state “have all of their staff back, everyone’s ready, and we’re going to really, hopefully, see a lot of shots. We want to continue to see this vaccine administered as quickly as possible.”

Officials also announced the expansion of Orlando Health Community Vaccination sites to seven locations: Orlando Health South Seminole, Orlando Health Dr. Phillips, Orlando Health Winnie Palmer, Orlando Health Essential Hospital, Orlando Health South Lake, Orlando Health St. Cloud, and Bayfront Health St. Petersburg.

Florida residents age 65 and over can register for vaccinations at those sites here.

Officials at Orlando Health said they administered about 10,000 vaccines to front-line health-care workers and that they expect this week to administer another 20,000 vaccines to a range of people. Those include health care professionals employed outside of Orlando Health, plus residents at nursing homes, long-term-care, and assisting-living facilities.

They’ll also offer vaccinations to its Orlando Health workers’ family members age 65 and over.

“That is a purposeful place for us to focus on,” said David Strong, president and CEO of Orlando Health. “It's people that we know. You may have read one of the greatest weights that front-line caregivers carry is, ‘Are they going to give COVID-19 to their families?’”

Dr. George Ralls, chief medical officer at Orlando Health, said the hospital chain hasn’t seen any serious reactions to the vaccinations and that “we’ve had very, very few people report anything.”

“We haven't had team members out of work because they got the vaccine and felt sick,” Ralls said. “Obviously, there's more to follow. We have a second dose coming up.”

Spectrum News Digital Producer Deanna Gugel contributed to this story.