Broward Mayor Steve Geller Wants Gov. DeSantis To Expand Eligibility For COVID-19 Vaccine

FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) - Governor Ron DeSantis has made residents 65 and older, long-term health care facility residents, and front-line health care workers, the priority in who should be first to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

Now with more vaccines coming to the state, Broward Mayor Steve Geller has asked the governor in a letter to expand the eligibility to people 55 and over, law enforcement, and teachers.

"People over 55 have an increased risk of bad results from exposure to COVID, all first responders run the risk of contracting COVID while protecting us, and vaccinating teachers will help with a full return of children to our schools," he wrote in the letter to DeSantis.

Geller notes that there are 340,000 seniors in Broward and that only about 250,000 of them will want the vaccine when it is first available.

READ: Mayor Steve Gellers Letter To Governor Ron DeSantis

As of this date, more than 211,000 Broward residents have now been vaccinated.

"With the increasing number of vaccines available, it seems clear that within the next month we will have vaccinated everyone over 65 in Broward that currently wants to receive the vaccine. Therefore, I expect that you will be issuing a new Executive Order in the near future to expand the list of people eligible to receive the COVID vaccine," Geller wrote.

Approximately 43 percent of seniors statewide have received a COVID-19 vaccine dose, according to the governor's office.