Children from the age of six months to five years old in Florida can begin to get a COVID vaccine starting Tuesday. However, you may have to call around to see if one is available for your child.

The state of Florida will not order vaccines for their health departments, but your local pediatrician or hospital can order the vaccine.

What Gov. DeSantis said he wants everyone to understand and know, is the state won’t help facilitate vaccinating a child from six months to five years old.

What You Need To Know

  • Florida Department of Health will not offer or order vaccine to six-month-olds to five-year-olds

  • Current State Covid positivity rate is 17.2%

  • 24% of 5 to 11-year-olds in Florida are vaccinated

Playing on a playground in downtown Orlando, toddler Rayna Smith is getting ready to turn two. Her parents, who are both fully vaccinated, plan on vaccinating their daughter soon.

“We are fully behind getting her vaccinated," Rayna's father, David Smith, says. "Just kind of like how we got vaccinated. We weren’t the first ones in line, but maybe we are the 100th or 1,000th person.”

On Monday, the governor explained why the state will not help facilitate ordering vaccines.

“We recommend against it," Gov. Ron DeSantis stated. "We are not going to have any programs where we are trying to jab six-month-old babies with MrNA."

 

Rayna’s parents, David and Raven, say before deciding to vaccinate their daughter, they spoke it over with their pediatrician.

“She told us about how safe it was," Smith explains. "And she didn’t say it is a 100% effective or anything, but that they are safe.”

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, as of June 15 of this year, 36% of children ages 5-11 across the U.S. have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

 

Twenty nine percent completed the two-dose vaccination series. Florida’s Department of Health reports that 24% of children 5-11 in the state are vaccinated.

“As a parent, you want to do everything you can for your kid to set them up for success," Smith says. "I feel like we have done our part and maybe we will still be a little more cautious, but at this point, I feel like we have done everything.”

Since the state is not recommending young children get a vaccine, families will have to seek a vaccine from a pharmacy, hospital, or pediatrician.​

If you are looking for a vaccine for your young child, call places ahead of time to see if they do, in fact, have it.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, there’s about 18.3 million 5 to 11-year-olds across the country who have not received a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. This past week, however, 46,000 did.