BRADENTON, Fla. — So far, over the course of 11 days of drive-thru vaccine operations, the Department of Health in Manatee County has vaccinated 5,457 people.
In a press release sent Monday, Jan. 11, Manatee County government said this number “will probably not change this week as there are very limited -- if any -- additional vaccine shipments to the Manatee-Sarasota area expected this week.”
County Administrator Cheri Coryea said Manatee County had not received any notice of additional vaccines to the area for this week as in weeks past.
Shortly after sending out their press release, Manatee County unexpectedly received additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines, according to county spokesperson Nicholas Azzara.
"Last night, we received 1,000 doses of the vaccine and our 311 team is prepared to start pushing those appointment opportunities again," Public Safety Director Jacob Saur told County Commissioners. “After this announcement, our 311 will start scheduling 900 appointments for those in the vaccine standby pool."
Another 100 doses are being reserved for patient-facing healthcare workers.
Representatives from 311 are making calls today to those seniors randomly selected from the vaccine supply pool.
“When we make those phone calls, if they do not answer we put them back into a list to call,” Saur said. “We make one more phone call to see if they answer. If they do, great, we’ll schedule that appointment, but if they don’t, they are not taken out of the list, they are put back into the vaccine waiting pool and we move onto the next.”
As of Tuesday morning, nearly 60,000 parties have pre-registered for the standby pool. Because couples are included in that total, the actual number of people in pool is 95,600.
Coryea says those in the standby pool do not need to do anything more at this time but wait and see if they are called. County officials say people should look for a call from 941-742-4300.
Saur says they are also making strides to help those without transportation get a vaccine this Thursday.
“Working with our MCAT system, we are also scheduling between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. on Thursday for this dose of Moderna,” Saur said. “Those who have no transportation to the site, our MCAT system will pick them up and bring them to the drive-thru site.”
Saur says the bust will pick seniors up directly from their homes.
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