Jacksonville city Chief Administrative Officer Brian Hughes tells a City Council committee the city intends to convert some of the COVID-19 test sites into vaccination sites in order to help boost administration of vaccinations in Duval County

Hughes said the hope is to provide vaccinations at two of the city-operated test sites this week. He said it's not a guarantee but city is working with state to get city contractors who have administered tests the certification to administer vaccines as well at city-run sites

Hughes said state Department of Health's goal is to get up to 1,000 vaccines done per day in Duval County this week. Hughes notes Duval County population is nearly 1 million and population of 65 and older is 125,000 to 130,000 so at that pace, would take months to vaccinate all

Hughes said city cannot directly purchase the vaccines. Federal govt. controls dispensation of vaccines that go to the states and state of Florida then allots to local government. Hughes said city's role would be to expand capacity for administering the vaccines more widely

City would use federal CARES Act dollars set aside by Jacksonville for testing to get the vaccinations sites in place at city-run locations. Also says state will look at doing vaccinations in future at state-run sites at Regency mall and at The Legends Center