BRADENTON, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis stopped at Tom Bennett Park on Thursday to highlight Manatee County’s vaccine distribution process.
But right now the county is waiting on more COVID-19 vaccine doses and it's unclear how many they'll get next.
"There’s such a high demand right now and with this being the beginning phase of vaccinations, there’s just not enough to go around," said Jake Saur, Manatee County Public Safety Director.
Still rebounding from a series of sign-up issues, Manatee County is on the second week of its drive-thru vaccinations giving about 700 doses a day to seniors like Joe and Marzy Bauer.
"I think it's unfortunate that there aren’t enough vaccines so that more people who want to do it quickly can do it. But I think they’re making a good attempt to get the vaccine out," said Marzy Bauer.
Governor DeSantis agrees. While the state has struggled to get larger amounts of the vaccine, he says Manatee County has led the way at getting shots in the arms of seniors quickly.
"I’ve told my folks to make sure we keep sending vaccines to this area at this site because they’re making good use of it," said DeSantis.
The governor says next week Florida will receive nearly 250,000 more vaccine doses for counties across the state, but right now it's a waiting game to get more vaccine supply.
"Here’s what I know. We’re going to do significantly more shots this week than last week across the state, and as long as we get more supply, we’ll do more shots next week than this week," said DeSantis.
