COVID-19 vaccine event for Manatee County employees after outbreak called ‘a success’
Manatee County officials were pleased with the turnout at a drive-thru vaccine event in downtown Bradenton on Friday, a week after a COVID-19 outbreak that left two county employees dead and three hospitalized.
A total of 79 people were vaccinated during Friday, including 39 county government employees. Some received the Moderna vaccine and others opted for the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Those who received the Moderna vaccine will have to return to the same location in four weeks to get their second dose.
“An early success, I think we are probably up to 60 people since 10 o’clock this morning, and probably 30 or more employees have already been vaccinated today,” Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes said before noon.
Exactly a week prior, the Manatee County administration building was abruptly shut down early and employees sent home when there was an outbreak confirmed in the county government’s IT department. Five employees contracted the coronavirus, four of whom were hospitalized.
Al Cox, one of the four hospitalized, died on June 14. The fifth employee who contracted the virus, Mary Knight, died at home on June 17.
A sixth employee who works on the CARES Act rental assistance program located on the same floor as the IT department also contracted the coronavirus, county administration learned on Monday.
“Our data and studies in the past week have shown us that the vaccines work. The vaccine saves lives,” Hopes said.
The five who died or were hospitalized were not vaccinated. Other employees who had direct with them were vaccinated and did not become infected.
Cher Erickson, 53, along with several others, waited in her car to be monitored for side effects late Friday morning, after getting vaccinated. A friend who works for the county told her about Friday’s event, knowing that Erickson wanted to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine because it’s what was recommended to her by a doctor.
“I am my son’s sole caregiver,” Erickson said. “I’m only here now because my mom’s there with him and I wanted to get the Johnson & Johnson.”
Jessica Bowles, 41, also took advantage of Friday’s event because “they were offering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.”
A court administration employee, Bowles found the event very well organized.
Friday’s drive-thru event was held in the breezeway just north of the Manatee County Administration building.
Manatee County Director of Public Safety Jacob Saur, who ran the county’s drive-thru vaccine sites for months, was pleased with Friday’s turnout. The county’s two drive-thru sites at Tom Bennett Park in Bradenton and the Manatee County Public Safety Center vaccinated tens of thousands of people earlier this year but closed when demand dwindled. Saur could no longer afford to staff a site not being utilized, especially when vaccines were easily accessible elsewhere in the community.
“Once we closed those sites, we knew these pop-ups in congested areas were going to be our target,” Saur said.
This story was originally published June 25, 2021 at 3:33 PM.
