Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state is continuing to prioritize seniors for the COVID-19 vaccine but said the state isn't making them available to tourists.
DeSantis held a news conference at The Villages Tuesday morning to give an update on the state's vaccination progress.
"We're not doing any tourists, some of these nursing home people may live here six months of the year so that's a little bit different," DeSantis said. "We have people all over the country, because we put seniors first and because people actually see shots going in arms, you have literally people all over the world and all over the country calling here to see. We're not doing that, we're not doing it for tourists, we're not doing it for interlopers."
Last week, NBC 6 reported on an Argentinian television personality who told viewers that her mother was receiving the vaccine while on vacation in South Florida. Another local woman said she knew of at least three people who had traveled from the Northeast to Florida to get the vaccine.
DeSantis acknowledged that people were trying to come to Florida to get vaccinated.
"If we weren't getting the shots in the arms people wouldn't be trying to come to Florida," he said.
DeSantis said more than 350,000 seniors in Florida have received a vaccine shot. There are more than 4.5 million seniors in Florida.
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The governor also said he'll be making more announcements soon about expanding Publix vaccinations. Publix began to distribute the vaccine at 22 different stores in three counties, averaging between 100-125 shots per day at each store, DeSantis said.
