(Tallahassee, FL) — Florida residents could be among the first to receive a coronavirus vaccine.  Florida is one of four states that will be part of a CDC vaccine pilot program, but there’s no word on when the program will start.

State Surgeon General Scott Rivkees announced yesterday that Florida is one of four states that will be part of a CDC vaccine pilot program.

Experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Pentagon and the administration’s Operation Warp Speed initiative plan to conduct site visits and develop “model approaches” for other states based on what they learn, according to a CDC description of the project.

The states involved include California, Florida, North Dakota and Minnesota.

We can’t get back to a normal life in the United States until a large proportion of the population is immune to the virus or an effective vaccine is developed.

Florida, once again, has a new record for COVID-19 deaths. The Department of Health yesterday announced a new single-day high of 276 deaths.

The state also recorded over 5800 new cases, and the positivity rate was just over 10%.  Florida has reported less than 10-thousand daily cases for the last 17 days.

But the United States is behind Russia which is defending its new coronavirus vaccine after President Vladimir Putin said Russia was the first country in the world to grant regulatory approval to a coronavirus vaccine, after less than two months of human testing.