Sarasota Memorial Hospital announces that it has started vaccinating its healthcare workers
Sarasota Memorial Hospital announced Tuesday that it received 9,600 doses of the COVID-19 Moderna vaccine in the morning and began vaccinating its healthcare workers in the afternoon.
It is the first hospital in the Bradenton-Sarasota area to announce that it has started vaccinating its staff.
“Our goal is to vaccinate approximately 575 staff members and physicians per day over the next few weeks. By 2 p.m., we had vaccinated over 200 staff members,” the hospital said in a statement.
“The first distribution is allocated to front-line workers, including physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists and clinical and non-clinical staff who support patient care,” the hospital said.
Given government guidelines and limited vaccine supplies in the United States, SMH’s initial focus will be on vaccinating employees and physicians on its medical staff.
For information on vaccine distribution to the general public in Florida, contact the Department of Health: Call 941-861-2883, email COVID-19@flhealth.gov or for updates via text messaging, text FLCOVID19 to 888777.
In Manatee County, more than 200 front-line healthcare workers received COVID-19 vaccines Tuesday outside the emergency management center. The vaccines came just hours after reports of a new coronavirus strain in the United Kingdom.
This story was originally published December 22, 2020 at 3:52 PM.
