State regulators have approved six property insurers to remove up to 151,000 policies from state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. in February.

The so-called takeouts are part of a continuing plan to reduce Citizens’ future catastrophe-related risk, such as hurricanes.

“We’re trying to return Citizens to its original role of being the insurer of last resort,” spokesman Michael Peltier said Wednesday.

Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation last month approved First Community Insurance Co. to take out as many as 51,249 Citizens policies, while Safepoint Insurance Co. may remove up to 40,000 policies.

Elements Property Insurance Co. and Heritage Property Casualty Insurance Co. each have been approved for up to 20,000 policies. Southern Fidelity Insurance Co. and Southern Fidelity Property & Casualty can remove 10,000 each.

Private insurers have taken out more than 312,000 Citizens policies this year. As of last week, Citizens had just more than 1 million policies statewide and expects to fall below 1 million early next year.

President Barry Gilway has said the goal is to trim Citizens down to about 800,000 policies.

Currently, Broward County is home to 104,379 Citizens policies. Palm Beach County has 62,614.