COVID-19 Vaccine Information

COVID-19 Vaccination standby pool - Priority groups (65+)

The Department of Health in Manatee County will be offering vaccinations to full- or part-time Florida residents aged 65 and older by appointment only, as supply is available.

Manatee County is implementing a COVID-19 vaccine standby process that allows seniors ages 65 and older to avoid waiting lines by pre-registering by phone or online with the County if they're interested in receiving vaccines beginning to arrive locally.

Visit the Florida Department of Health's website to learn more about COVID-19 vaccinations in Florida.

Register for the Standby Pool

Register Now

Register online at vax.mymanatee.org anytime, or register by calling 311 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays.

Based on updated guidance from the state, vaccine recipients must be full- or part-time Florida residents. At your appointment, you will be required to show a valid Florida driver's license or ID card, part-time rental agreement or utility, cable or power bill in your name with a Florida address. (See full list of acceptable documentation of residency.) Manatee County residence is not required, but vaccine recipients must remain in or return to Manatee County for their second dose (28 days after the first appointment). NOTE: Vaccine eligibility is determined at the state level by the Governor's requirements.

Please be aware that fraudulent websites are marketing COVID-19 vaccines to the Manatee County public. Do not register for a vaccine using any link other than through this web page. Registration is free.

If you have questions related to COVID-19 or the vaccine, please contact the Manatee County Department of Health.

Healthcare Workers: A limited amount of doses will be reserved for healthcare workers when vaccines are received. If you are a patient-facing healthcare worker, you can now register for the Frontline Healthcare Worker Vaccine Standby Pool. Names from the pool will be randomly selected when vaccines arrive. When your name is selected, Manatee County 311 will contact you to book your appointment. Only patient-facing healthcare workers are eligible. You will need to bring a photo ID and medical provider credentials to your appointment.

How to get vaccinated

• You must be age 65 or older and you must remain in Manatee County to receive your second round shot, 28 days after your first appointment.
• Sign up for Manatee County's COVID-19 Vaccination Standby Pool at vax.mymanatee.org or by calling 311 (any weekday between 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., beginning Jan. 8)
  • You can register up to two people together on this form to attend an appointment together.
  • Duplicate entries will be removed.
• As vaccines become available, eligible recipients will be randomly selected from the pool.
  • If you are not selected, you will go back into the pool with the opportunity be selected the next time vaccines become available. You do not have to submit your name again.
• When selected, you will be contacted by Manatee County to book an appointment.
  • We will announce when we are making calls at the top of this page and on social media. The number may show up as (941) 742-4300 when you are called. (Please note we cannot guarantee this will be the number that shows up, so it is best to answer all calls on this day.)
    • In order for the call not to get flagged as Spam by some phones, we strongly recommend adding the phone number to your list of contacts
    • We will attempt to call you twice. If you miss both calls, you will be put back into the pool to be selected at a future time.
  • Appointments will be made as quickly as vaccine doses are received by the county.
  • In order for our 311 Call Center operators to work efficiently, please do not call 311 to ask whether your name has been selected. 311 callers will call you when an appointment time is available.
• View our Vaccination Appointment Information page for details about your appointment and what you need to bring, including the consent form. Please do not arrive more than 15 minutes before your scheduled appointment time.

Your Appointment

View the Vaccination Information Page for details on what you need to know for your appointment. Please do not arrive more than 15 minutes before your scheduled appointment time. 

Once you receive your first vaccine dose, a Manatee County representative will contact you 5-7 days prior to your second vaccine dose to set up an appointment date and time.

Additional Information

• Fact sheet for recipients and caregivers
• Hoja informativa para receptores y cuidadores (español)
• Fey enfomasyon pou moun k’ap resevwa avek moun k’ap bay swen (Kreyòl Ayisyen/Haitian Creole)
• FDA website information for the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine

OVERVIEW

• Securing and distributing a COVID-19 vaccine is a top priority for the state of Florida. A COVID-19 vaccine will be a critical resource to preventing the further spread of the virus and allowing Floridians to return to the normal pace of life.
• The state of Florida is committed to providing timely and important updates regarding the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine. The state is working alongside the federal government to answer key questions for Floridians and secure additional therapeutic treatments for our hospitals as we continue to respond to COVID-19 in our state.
• Florida has launched a COVID-19 Vaccine Report that will be updated daily at FloridaHealthCOVID19.gov. This report includes a breakdown of who has received the vaccine by age, race, sex and county.
  On December 23, Governor Ron DeSantis announced Executive Order 20-315, which states:
  • During this first phase of vaccine administration, all providers administering any COVID-19 vaccine shall only vaccinate the following populations:
    • Long-term care facility residents and staff;
    • Persons 65 years of age and older; and
    • Health care personnel with direct patient contact.
    • Hospitals, however, also may vaccinate persons who they deem to be extremely vulnerable to COVID-19.
• Governor DeSantis also announced that in addition to hospitals, County Health Departments will begin vaccinating individuals 65 and older in the coming weeks as supply permits.
• At this time, a limited amount of COVID-19 vaccine has been received by select County Health Departments; as more doses become available, County Health Departments will work with their community partners to provide vaccines to those 65 and older.
• Each County Health Department will work directly with their community partners to notify the community when vaccine is available, and will provide information about what will be needed to register for vaccination.
• More details will be provided on this process as they become available.
• Over the past two weeks, more than 170 hospitals across the state have received doses of the COVID-19 vaccines, and as a part of their allocation, hospitals received enough doses to vaccinate their entire frontline health care staff and have vaccine remaining.

Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine

• On December 18, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the second vaccine for the prevention of coronavirus disease 2019, COVID-19.
•  The emergency use authorization allows the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine to be distributed in the U.S for use in individuals 18 years of age and older.
• The Moderna vaccine is a 2-dose series separated by 28 days.
• The state is expecting to receive 367,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine this week.
• Included in this distribution, doses of the vaccine will be distributed to 173 hospitals in 43 counties that did not receive doses in the first allocation of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. For more information including a list of these hospitals, please refer to the announcement by Governor DeSantis.

Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine

• Friday, Dec. 11, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued the first emergency use authorization (EUA) for a vaccine for the prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The emergency use authorization allows the Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine to be distributed in the U.S.
• FDA has authorized emergency use of the Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine in individuals 16 years of age and older
• The Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine vaccination series is 2 doses given 3 weeks apart.

PREPARATION

• The State of Florida has been proactively preparing for vaccine distribution since July.
• The Florida Division of Emergency Management created a stockpile of resources in anticipation of distributing the COVID-19 vaccine. This includes 5 million syringes, 5 million needles, 5 million band-aids, etc. These initial purchases were made to prevent any delay in administering a vaccine, once it becomes available.
• The Department is working closely with the federal government to plan for the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine. A draft plan was submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and the state and is available online at floridahealthcovid19.gov.
• As we gather more information from the federal government on vaccine availability and distribution, this plan will continue to be updated.

OVERALL DISTRIBUTION

• In addition to working with CVS and Walgreens, the state is also launching a pilot in Broward and Pinellas counties to vaccinate long term care facilities in conjunction with their respective county health departments.
• In the initial planned distribution of 179,400 doses of Pfizer vaccine, 97,500 doses will be distributed amongst the 5 Florida pilot hospitals.
• 60,450 doses will be sent to the Federal Pharmacy Program with CVS and Walgreens for long-term care facility residents and staff.
• 21,450 doses will go directly to the Florida Department of Health to administer by strike teams in long term care facilities.
• Strike teams were sent to Broward, Pinellas and Dade counties to assist with vaccine administration to long-term care facilities.
  
  • At this time, the teams have visited 111 nursing homes over the last week.
• They will then work with partners from the Florida National Guard and
• The vaccine is expected to arrive this week and distribution will begin almost immediately.

LONG TERM CARE FACILITIES

• The State of Florida is prioritizing the most at-risk populations to receive the initial round of vaccines. This includes:
  
  • Residents and staff of long-term care facilities
  • High risk frontline health care workers
• The state has prioritized the safety of these populations since the onset of the pandemic. These populations are the most at-risk to contract the virus and experience complications from the virus.
• The Department is working closely with partners to distribute the vaccine to long-term care facilities, including CVS and Walgreens.
• CVS and Walgreens are working under Operation Warp Speed to distribute the vaccine to long-term care facilities across the nation, and they are a critical partner here in Florida.
• The state is also working with the Agency for Health Care Administration to ensure that we are prioritizing the most vulnerable and are working closely with the administrators of long-term care facilities to address any challenges they face.
• AHCA has established emergency rules requiring that Nursing Homes and Assisted-Living Facilities enroll in the CVS/Walgreens Program. More than 97% of all facilities have already enrolled.

DISTRIBUTION TO HOSPITALS

• As vaccines continue to be developed, the state of Florida has been aggressively working to secure adequate and reliable storage for the COVID-19 vaccine.
• The Pfizer vaccine requires extraordinary storage capabilities. Once this was announced, the state immediately began working to identify hospitals that are capable of storing this vaccine.
• The state surveyed all hospitals in Florida to determine demand and storage capabilities. The state then sent the collected information to the federal government and the federal government made the final determination of which hospitals will receive the initial vaccine supply. The five hospitals identified are:
  
  • Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami-Dade County
  • Memorial Healthcare System in Broward County
  • Tampa General Hospital in Hillsborough County
  • Advent Health in Orange County
  • UF Health in Duval County

VACCINATION FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC

• Following the initial distributions to high-risk frontline health care workers and long-term care facility staff and residents, the state will work to provide vaccine to additional priority groups, including first responders.
• The state is committed to providing the vaccine to each priority group and to the general public as quickly as possible, however, much of these plans are dependent on vaccine supply.
• Updates on timeline for the general public will be provided as those plans become available.