Beginning Monday, March 29, all Floridians age 40 and older will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The following Monday, April 5, all individuals age 18 and older will be eligible to receive the vaccine, according to an announcement today by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis said the decision to lower the age requirements came based on the successful lowering of the age to 50 from 65 earlier this week.

“While the Biden administration set a May 1st target date for vaccine eligibility for all adults, Florida is pleased to announce that all adults in the state age 18 and older will be eligible for the vaccine beginning Monday, April 5th,” said DeSantis.

Floridians are encouraged to pre-register at www.myvaccine.fl.gov. Once pre-registered, they’ll be contacted when the vaccine is available in their area. Floridians can also call the vaccine preregistration phone number for their county, listed here.

Vaccines are also available at 150 CVS locations, 125 Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club locations, more than 70 Winn Dixie locations, soon-to-be over 600 Walgreens pharmacies, and all of the 730 Publix pharmacies across the state.

The governor said, “We have now vaccinated over 70 percent of the roughly 4.4 million seniors living in the state. We have also made great progress on those age 60 to 64 and those age 50 and older. And we are ready to take this step.”

He said COVID-related hospitalization and case rates for senior citizens have plummeted since the start of Florida’s Seniors First strategy and he wants to keep up momentum by expanding eligibility to other age groups throughout the state of Florida.

He touted Florida’s ranking as 41st in senior mortality per capita, with 40 states having higher mortality for COVID on a per capita basis than the state of Florida.

“We’ve stood up more than 100 county sites and state sites. We’ve also brought the vaccine directly to underserved communities,” DeSantis said. “We’ve partnered with pharmacy retailers to offer the vaccine. There are now 1,600 pharmacies located throughout the state of Florida offering COVID vaccines.”