(WFLA) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis held a press conference in The Villages Tuesday, saying the elderly in Florida’s communities will be next in line to get the COVID vaccine.

The announcement was made by the Governor at the Advanced Surgery Center at UF Health The Villages Hospital Tuesday afternoon.

“There were discussions among the CDC that actually had a proposal to place “younger essential workers” ahead of elderly individuals. Now that was met with, deservedly, a lot of backlash,” DeSantis said.

“If you’re 22-years-old and working at a grocery store you take preference over a 74-year-old grandma? I don’t think that’s the direction we want to go In Florida,” Governor DeSantis said. He continued “We’ve got to put our grandparents first. That’s what we’re going to be doing. We’re going to work like hell to get all the vaccines out to the elderly who want it,” said Governor DeSantis.

He continued, if that is something CDC officials choose to do, Florida will not follow suit. “They do not bind states, individual governors and they will not bind the state of FL. Let me be very clear….our vaccines are going to be targeted towards our elderly population first,” said Governor DeSantis.

It’s unclear exactly what age range will constitute as elderly at this time, he said more details would be released soon.

During the conference, the first elderly people in the community who are not living in assisted living facilities received the vaccine. “These are probably the 1st members of the community who are senior citizens to be vaccinated, maybe in the country but certainly in Florida,” said DeSantis.

Over the past week patients of long-term care facilities, the staff there and some healthcare workers have been receiving the vaccine. He said in the first week they successfully distributed the vaccine to more than 100 assisted living facilities in Pinellas and Broward counties.

During the press conference, the governor said Florida is set to receive about 500,000 doses of the vaccine this week alone.

“We now have this light at the end of the tunnel for our elderly where you’re going to have in a relatively short order access to a safe and effective vaccine,” said DeSantis.

In Monday’s press conference, the governor spoke on the impact of the vaccine at Florida’s long-term care facilities.

“You’re also worried about the quality of life and having all this mitigation and just not being able to live out some of your final years in ways that are the most fruitful. I think the vaccine provides a way not only to prevent folks from obviously a serious pathogen but hopefully opening that window of returning to normalcy and really thriving as seniors,” he said.

“You had people with tears in their eyes. ‘Cause it’s like, ‘finally, we have some help on the way that can get us beyond the mitigation.’”