Manatee County to Begin Scheduling 7,650 Vaccine Appointments Using New Automated Booking System

February 26, 2021 – Sarasota

As vaccine doses begin arriving locally in greater quantities, Manatee County will transition to a new automated appointment booking system today, Feb. 26.

The County’s Everbridge notification system will be used to book 7,650 appointments for seniors starting today at 9 a.m. The calls should appear from a familiar number, the same number Manatee County Call Center has used to book appointments for several weeks: (941) 742-4300. Those who are in the vaccine standby pool do not need to program a new number in their phones. 

The 7,650 appointments will be booked for March 3 – 5 at Tom Bennett Park. They are in addition to 5,100 appointments booked for March 1 and 2. There are a total of 12,750 appointments scheduled for Tom Bennett Park next week, 2,550 each day. Nearly 50,000 manatee County residents have been vaccinated to date. 

Vaccine recipients will be randomly selected from the standby pool. When you are selected, you will receive an automated phone call from (941) 742-4300 or a text from 88911 to schedule your appointment. You will also receive a text message from 88911 and/or an email if you provided a mobile phone number or email address with your registration.

Those who are notified for an appointment should respond quickly. Those who do not respond within two hours will be placed back in the standby pool. 

When the call or text arrives, seniors will see three options: 

• Select 1 if you can attend the scheduled appointment date and time.
• Select 2 if you cannot attend the scheduled appointment date and time. You will be entered back into the standby pool to be selected at another time.
• Select 3 if you have already received the vaccine and/or want to be removed from the standby pool. 

After you select one of these options, you will receive a follow-up message via phone, text and/or email confirm your appointment date, time and location. View a brief video on the new notification process here. 

To enroll in the county’s vaccination pool, visit vax.mymanatee.org or call 311.  
  
For more information on Manatee County Government, visit www.mymanatee.org or call (941) 748-4501. You can also follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/manatee.county.fl and on Twitter @ManateeGov.