More than 300 animals received free rabies vaccinations on Wednesday as the Monroe County Health Department held its first-ever drive-thru vaccination event.

Vaccinations are usually done indoors, but they're now being done outdoors because of the pandemic.

Pet owners drove to the event, and briefly got their pets out of their vehicles for the vaccinations.

Vets say they wanted to ensure rabies isn't overlooked while the world deals with the COVID-19 outbreak.

"It's important for public health and with everything else going on in the world, we don't want to overlook another disease that could be a big problem while we're dealing with COVID, but it's important to keep pets healthy so that their families can stay healthy too," said Doctor of veterinary medicine at Webster Veterinary Clinic Susan Lewis

"We think it's a wonderful opportunity, getting our cats immunized, and it's free, so it's definitely a great benefit as well," said pet owner Jonathon Wing. 

Monroe County is also supplying free rabies vaccine syringes and certificates to towns to conduct its own rabies vaccine clinics.

The county says its planning more drive-through clinics for the fall.