Manatee County receives 1,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses

A day after Manatee County said it was unlikely it would receive a shipment of COVID-19 vaccine this week, it was alerted it would receive 1,000 doses from the state.

Manatee County will schedule 900 appointments with senior citizens chosen randomly from the county's standby pool Tuesday. Seniors who are selected will receive a call from 742-4300 on Tuesday and can book an appointment as early as Thursday.

If a senior misses the first call, the 311 call center will try one more time later Tuesday. If both calls are missed, the senior will be placed back into the standby pool. The county asks that seniors do not call 311 to ask if they have been selected.

The remaining 100 doses will be given to frontline healthcare workers.

As of Tuesday morning, the county said about 60,000 parties have registered for the standby pool. Couples are included in that total, meaning the number of people in the pool is about 95,600.