Health Departments Test Message System for Vaccine Assistance List – Memphis Local, Sports, Business & Food News

Health Departments Test Message System for Vaccine Assistance List – Memphis Local, Sports, Business & Food News

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As of this week, Shelby County is receiving 11,000 to 12,000 doses of vaccine per week from the state, bringing it closer to its goal of vaccinating 3,500 to 5,000 people a day.

The health department is now doing a fraction of that. On a good day, like Saturday, January 23, it got nearly 1,200 in the Pipkin building by enlarging staff.

<strong>Alisa Housekeeper</strong>“src =” https://thememphian.blob.core.windows.net/sized/46928_440 “/><figcaption> <p><strong>Alisa Housekeeper</strong></p> </figcaption></figure> </div> <p>According to director Alisa Haushalter, the Appling Cove site, which will be open for two days for second doses this week, will last about 1,200 a day.</p> <p>It is not clear how many employees vaccinate the hospitals per day, and because the veterans administration is giving shots and increasing federal contracts with Walgreens and CVS to supplement vaccinations at nursing homes, the numbers will increase rapidly. But there is no current way to put the federal and local efforts together, she said, leaving big questions about the number of people actually vaccinated, even in nursing homes.</p> <p>“We do know that pharmacies work with nursing homes, but we do not have the ability to know locally how much vaccine they have received, at least not at the moment, and which nursing homes they have visited,” she said.</p> <div class=
<strong>U.S. Representative</strong><br /><strong>Steve Cohen</strong>“src =” https://thememphian.blob.core.windows.net/sized/46927_440 “/><figcaption> <p><strong>U.S. Representative</strong><br /><strong>Steve Cohen</strong></p> </figcaption></figure> </div> <p>In a letter on Monday, Jan. 25, U.S. Representative Steve Cohen charged the government, Bill Lee, with the amount of vaccine Shelby County received from the state, telling him that Shelby County residents did what they were told. , and acted in ‘good’ conduct. faith ”throughout the pandemic despite the state’s unwillingness to issue state-wide guidelines on masking and other precautions.</p> <p>“Yet recent news reports indicate that the province is last in terms of vaccination rates,” Cohen wrote. “These reports contradict the government’s announced policy of giving neighborhoods in downtown and rural areas an additional 5 percent increase in vaccines.”</p> <p>Shelby County Schools is expected to resume personal lessons on Feb. 8, but according to the current grant, teachers can not expect to be vaccinated until March, Shelby Mayor Lee Harris said Monday.</p> <p>Although the province had many partners who were willing to help vaccinate it, “we can not turn on the lights on some of those kinds of pieces and do the great vaccination of teachers without the vaccination,” he said.</p> <h3><strong>Stand in line</strong></h3> <p>To improve the accessibility and fairness of who gets the vaccine, the province has for weeks been testing the Vax Queue, an IT messaging system that allows people to sign up for the vaccine online and receive a text message, to a landline phone or an email when they are there doses are available, including when the state unexpectedly adds more doses one week or when people do not show up for appointments. </p> <p>Based on the registration questionnaire, the country will know how close someone is to a test site and how fast they can get there, but also the age and job of the person, so that the Department of Health can quickly align these people.</p> <p>‘Sometimes we can find out in the middle of the day because of the weather or another event that we have additional vaccines, and for those who can not get to a yard fairly quickly, we can identify Danielle Inez, Shelby County Chiefs of Staff government, said.</p> <p>People who say they can arrive within an hour receive four hours notice and the location of the vaccination site in the SMS or phone call.</p> <p>The question can also be sorted by zip code, she said, so the health department can see where the need is and plan clinics accordingly.</p> <p>The system is expected to go live this week. Registration for Vax Drive will be through Shelby.community.</p> <p>At the moment, additional stock is being announced orally, which has resulted in access issues.</p> <hr style=

Landers Center becomes COVID-19 vaccination site

“People should just hope that they carry knowledge or that they know someone who will contact them and let them know when there are extra vaccinations available,” Inez said. “We are trying to make the process fairer so that anyone who wants to know can sign up to receive the information.”

For now, the program allows people to get in the back of the queue and wait their turn. Future reruns of Vax Queue will allow them to make appointments, including second appointments the moment they get their first chance.

On Monday, it would cause a lot of anxiety among people aged 75 and older and hundreds of children of the sandwich generation caring for elderly parents.

Early in the day, there was a certain desperation as hundreds of elderly people who received first doses between December 28 and January 3 had their first encounter with SignUpGenius, a sign-up portal created more than ten years ago to help churches and other groups help organize. potty training and volunteers.

It is now the vehicle to make COVID appointments online. When the health department released the links Monday at 8 p.m., thousands of people were at home hovering over their keyboards.

Places, sign-up link released for second doses

Legions were still waiting for the health department to send them the link. When the lyrics do not show up, it starts a round of anxiety again. Hundreds of others rushed to get help through the hotline – (901) 222-SHOT (7468) – where callers alternately could not go through or spent hours getting signals.

“It was crazy,” said Marilyn Hergenrader. ‘I’m in a Facebook group with all sorts of people my age who have parents aged 75 and older. None of our parents are technologically proficient; some do not have internet. We hawk it for them, worried it’s going to be the first time, the first time or difficult.

“Look, it was hard,” she said shortly after 1pm when her mother was finally registered.

McGowen on COVID vaccine: ‘Send us as much as you can’

After numerous attempts to use non-functioning links on the Department of Health website, Hergenrader typed the address into her browser and got the registration for Germantown Baptist, the most suitable place for her mother, only to realize that she had to second. shot before February 2, when it will open.

“It’s very frustrating. I had a lot of calls this morning from other people like me who need to help their parents. You are worried: will there not be enough? Will they fill up quickly and will you miss the chance your mom gets it?

“The more they give partial and incomplete information, the more you do not trust, you will get a place,” she said.

For her, it was a major mistake to say that times and places for second doses would be released on Thursday, January 21, and would not deliver.

Jim Dixon signed up for a text message from the Department of Health to let him know how to register for his second dose.

When it did not come when the links became public on Monday, he wondered what was not working yet.

“I finally got a text, it was good,” he said. “But I expected them all to burn at 8:00 so people wouldn’t be scared.”

He was able to make an appointment on SignUpGenius after a few tries and now feels comfortable with the following.

“I realize this is the first time for the health department and the first time for everyone,” Dixon said. ‘It would seem that the health department has so much uncertainty. When we asked a doctor there if we would get our second chance, she was definitely. “You get a second chance, but we do not know when, because we do not know about the availability or stock.” ”

The state is now negotiating with major retailers, including Kroger, Walgreens and CVS to expand the distribution of vaccines.

“I would say it’s not that far in the future,” Haushalter said. “The state is dependent on the increase in supply from the federal level, which makes it possible to push up some of the plans across the country.”

By this time next week, the Department of Health expects to announce a vaccination station in Whitehaven. It’s also exploring Sam Cooper Boulevard and into Frayser.

As of this week, it is offering vaccines to the elderly, 60 and older, who are already receiving clients who are receiving other services at the Department of Health office at 1020 S. Bellevue. Other people in their 60s are not yet vaccinated.

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