Virginia is launching a live COVID-19 sign-up program, which means local systems will be shut down later Friday to integrate their waiting lists.
Virginia is launching a live COVID-19 sign-up program, which means local systems will be shut down Friday night.
The Virginia Department of Health said in a statement that local vaccination registration systems will close at 5 p.m. Friday and that the new nationwide system will begin Tuesday, February 16th.
The current waiting lists at local health departments will be folded into the nationwide system, the health department said.
The vaccine coordinator in Virginia, dr. Danny Avula, told a news conference on Friday that the local systems will reopen, but they will link to the nationwide website.
There’s one big exception: Fairfax County.
“The Fairfax Health District will not be using the new system at this time,” the Fairfax County Department of Health said Friday. They said that residents should not report to the state yard, but that they should use the county system.
“We have invested a lot of resources in our registration system and worked out the kinks to ensure that we continue to process more people than any other health district in the state,” said Jeff McKay, chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. “At this point, I’m glad we can maintain our system that residents are familiar with to reduce confusion.”
“They worked very hard to build their own system,” Avula said of Fairfax County; “We absolutely hope they will join soon.”
McKay confirms the sentiment: “We will continue to hold talks with the state on registration as the vaccine process begins.”
‘Over the weekend, the state health department said,’ the Commonwealth will duplicate, clean up and consolidate the data from local health district systems. ‘People’ will retain their current status in the queue ‘, he added.
The key changes that a state-wide system will bring, Avula said, include a standard form for all Virgos, so that they provide answers to the same questions regarding which priority groups they belong to.
The new system will also address a widespread issue, adding: “There will be a confirmation on the screen when you put the information on the form,” and “you will also receive weekly reminders” about where you are in the queue stand. Residents can also check their status at any time.
Call Center
The central system also provides a direct call center with 750 callers who speak English and Spanish, as well as third-party access to translators in 100 languages. This, Avula predicted, would help with questions about fairness for people who do not have easy internet access and who cannot jump to a website the first morning to make an appointment.
Avula can not only take appointments but also answer common questions about COVID-19.
Residents will give their address when they sign up, and their appointments will be in their local health districts, Avula said. Local districts “will still compile their own lists,” he said.
The telephone number and web address will be provided next week.
Fairfax County Dashboard
Also Friday afternoon, Fairfax County launched its own COVID-19 vaccine panel.
McKay said that on the province’s dashboard you can confirm your registration status and see the progress of Fairfax County’s vaccination efforts in a push for improved transparency and communication. ‘
It shows how many vaccine doses the province received and how much it was administered, as well as on what date people who are currently getting appointments originally registered. The province has made appointments since Friday for people who signed up Jan. 18.
McKay said the need for such a dashboard became apparent shortly after people started signing up for vaccinations and low inventory meant longer than expected guards: ‘We were hoping to talk about it in a few weeks,’ but in reality, “We have to make sure that our people’s expectations fit in again. ”
He said everyone on the province’s waiting list had been notified on Friday that they were still standing in line, and he hoped the transparency provided by the dashboard would make the wait less stressful. McKay added that he expects the stock to increase vaccine doses each week.
WTOP’s Mike Murillo contributed to this report.
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