Amid increasing demand among seniors for the COVID-19 vaccine, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that the federal government would send additional weekly shipments to selected pharmacies and that Florida has “identified Walmart, Winn-Dixie, and Publix to receive those.”

Meanwhile, the Florida Department of Health has launched a pilot program of a new telephone appointment system that aims to help counties better handle the demand for vaccinations, according to The Associated Press.

DeSantis announced recently that he would open the vaccines to seniors 65 and older, prompting long lines, crashed websites, and chaos for some hospitals and county health departments administering the doses.

Jason Mahon, spokesman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said Miami-Dade County rolled out the pilot program last week. It expanded this week to Hillsborough, Broward, Duval, and Lee counties, he said.

The Associated Press reports that the system is expect to expand to more counties next week and that state officials hope it helps seniors schedule shots.

“The state is actively collaborating with counties and local officials to launch a system that will include a streamlined vaccination appointment process,” Mahon said. “We will continue to expand this pilot to include more counties in the coming week.”

As for the new shipments to pharmacies, Florida has been sending allotments to Publix as part of a partnership with the grocery chain, which now offers the vaccine in almost 250 pharmacies, DeSantis said.

The governor emphasized that the new federal government shipments to certain pharmacies would add to doses from Florida’s allotments.

“It could be tens of thousands” of doses to those pharmacies, DeSantis said at a news conference in Key Largo. “Maybe even a little more than that, maybe a little less.”

“Publix has been really good to work with,” he said. “I think Walmart wants to get involved, and I think Winn-Dixie.”

Walmart spokeswoman Rebecca Thomason told Spectrum News in an email that the company has signed a provider agreement with the federal government that allows Walmart and Sam’s Club pharmacists to “administer vaccine all across our geographic footprint.”

She said select company pharmacies have been administering vaccines “at the request of the states in New Mexico and Arkansas.”

“We are in conversations with several other states,” she wrote. “We don’t have any specifics to share at this time …”

DeSantis added: “We want it available in as many communities in Florida as possible, and I think those (companies, plus Publix) are good tools to be able to be able to do that.”

The governor also said Florida next week expects to receive an allotment of 266,000 COVID 19-vaccine doses, just as it did this week, and he emphasized that the state is prepared to administer more vaccinations if supply increases.

All 266,000 will be for first doses, he said, explaining that the federal government holds onto second doses and sends them directly to organizations that give the shots when they’re ready to be administered.

“We did over 400,000 shots last week Monday through Sunday,” DeSantis said. “This week we probably aren’t going to reach that just because we’re not getting enough vaccine.”

The governor’s news conference came as Florida counties and hospitals report that the demand for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines far outpaces supply.

DeSantis has emphasized the vaccination of residents age 65 and over, and he hailed Friday the expected vaccination in the coming days of the 1 millionth Florida senior.

An estimated 4.3 million seniors reside in Florida.

“We’re going to continue working to get the vaccines to all of our senior citizens,” DeSantis said. “We believe in the next few days, we’ll actually cross 1 million 65-and-up that will have gotten shots in the state of Florida. That is leading the nation by a country mile.”

DeSantis also used the news conference to tout his economic and coronavirus policies, crediting a reported additional 20,000 private-sector jobs in Florida last month in part to Florida’s openness of businesses and schools during the pandemic.

“People have a right to work in Florida,” he said. “Government can’t shut you down, and businesses have a right to operate.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.