State continues to work on vaccine rollout plan as federal officials want to send 8 million doses next week

The plan per federal officials is to send out 8 million COVID-19 vaccine doses next week.

That is for both Pfizer and Moderna, with a goal of having 20 million first dose shots in arms by the end of the month.

Federal officials say the Moderna vaccine should arrive as soon as Monday.

“Today is another landmark day for our nation,” said Army General Gustave Perna, the COO of Operation Warp speed.

On Friday night, the FDA cleared Moderna’s vaccine for emergency use and now millions of doses are being shipped nationwide.

In Florida, 367,000 doses are expected and will serve more than 170 hospitals statewide, including smaller hospitals such as Coral Gables Hospital in Miami-Dade.

This comes on the heels of Pfizer’s week one roll-out that prioritized groups like hospital healthcare workers and seniors in long-term care facilities receiving their first dose.

“We went on the offense,” Perna said.

Pfizer is a two-dose vaccine, but by week’s end, questions surfaced about its second shipment to Florida.

Everyone who got a shot in the arm this week will need that second dose 21 days later.

A Florida Department of Health spokesperson told Local 10 News that Florida was planning to receive approximately 205,000 doses in our week two allocation from Pfizer, but is now projected to receive 127,000 doses.

That is a nearly a 40% reduction and prompted an apology on Saturday from Perna about how many Pfizer doses would be available to states during the initial distribution phase.

“I want to take personal responsibility for the miscommunication,” Perna said. “I know that is not done much these days, but I am responsible and I take responsibility for the miscommunication.”

A Pfizer spokesperson said they may have Florida’s second dose ready to dispatch to the state within the next three weeks.