Jacksonville website, 6 others in Florida offer 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 conjunction with places of worship, Governor Ron DeSantis announced.

“We truly believe it’s important to ensure that these vaccines reach all parts of the community, and we think this is one way to work with our houses of worship,” DeSantis told a news conference Sunday morning in Lynn Haven. ‘We started doing one in Pensacola last Saturday. It was very successful. ”

Sunday at 9 p.m., the St. Matthew Baptist Church near Moncrief in Jacksonville 500 preselected doses of the vaccine administered to people 65 years and older. Rovenia Brooks and her husband, Earl, received their first dose of vaccine there, saying they have appointments to receive their second dose within a few weeks.

“Our church – Mt. Sinai (Missionary Baptist Church), Pastor (RL) Gundy – they called us at home and asked if we wanted to take the chance, ‘Rovenia Brooks said:’ I was nervous at first, so I said no. The next day, Friday, I called him and I called back to church and he said he was calling Audrey Gibson’s office (state sen.) And had the secretary take your name and put it on the roll for Mt. Sinai, so I did it. ”

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

‘The appointment was actually made, a pastor friend, went through the process of him on the line and we entered it through sen. Audrey Gibson’s office, ‘Foy said. “It went through the process, and I was able to get in and get it.”

In addition to Jacksonville and Lynn Haven, DeSantis said, the sites that operated Sunday were in Tallahassee, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, St. Louis. Lucie and Tampa. He said there were 50 different houses of worship, many of which were mainly African-American churches.

“It’s a lot of teamwork,” he said. “It was the state that provided resources. It was the city and the province that worked with all the churches to make this happen, and therefore they designated each church a certain number of times to receive, and then the pastor would work to get some senior citizens for to be able to bring those. times. ”

The governor said the vaccination is still important for the elderly.

“We put seniors first,” DeSantis said. “We do it in different ways. You see, some of these big hospital systems are now starting to knock out a lot of vaccinations. We appreciate it. You are also looking at some provincial health departments that work in their communities to get older people vaccinated. You are looking at some state-of-the-art drive-through sites that support the state as well as some residents throughout Florida. This is something that was very convenient. And then our partnership with Publix. ”

According to data from the Florida Department of Health, 558,326 people were vaccinated in Florida, including 275,771 people aged 65 and older.

Hopefully, DeSantis said, the state will get about 250,000 extra shots from the first dose next week. He added that he was asked if Florida could possibly get more.

News4Jax reached out to the Florida Department of Health to confirm who was responsible for discussing the appointments in the St. Matthew Baptist Church, but received no response Sunday afternoon.