Action News Jax takes deeper dive into county COVID-19 vaccine rollouts

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Florida reached a major milestone this week when it expanded COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to everyone 16 and older.

So far, more than 6.6 million Floridians have been vaccinated statewide.

Action News Jax spoke with Rhianna Pressler, 20, at a vaccine site in Green Cove Springs.

She said she made an appointment to get the shot as soon as she found out she was eligible.

“I’m just super-grateful to be able to get the vaccine,” Pressler said. “It means a lot just to be able to do my part.”

Action News Jax is taking a deeper dive into the vaccine rollout, county by county. Using the latest vaccine numbers from the Florida Department of Health and the latest 2019 census data, Action News Jax calculated the percentages of county populations vaccinated.

Twenty-three percent of people living in Clay County have been vaccinated. That’s compared with 27% in Duval County. St. Johns is leading the way with 39% of the county’s population vaccinated.

Overall, 31% of Florida’s population have received the shot so far.

There is one group, Pressler said, that needs to be better targeted with the vaccine rollout.

“People around my age group, I feel like, are hesitant,” Pressler said. “I’m definitely going to be encouraging the people that I hang out around with, because I know that there’s some hesitance there.”

According to our calculations, people ages 16 through 34 make up 7.5% of the people vaccinated statewide.

Cox Media Group