In an effort to streamline vaccination of its citizens, the state rolled out a new registration system yesterday, but questions and frustration persist.
The new system allows people to register for vaccination. The state then offers to contact them by e-mail, text or phone to make an appointment. Some people who tried to sign up for vaccination using the Vaccinate.Virginia.gov hotline were disappointed Tuesday.
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But at the Blue Ridge Health District, Kathryn Goodman urged patience.
“It’s brand new, so today is day one of a statewide database for millions of people to access,” she explained.
Once the system is up and running, she was confident it would serve the public better than dealing with one of 35 local health districts, and she stressed that people who had registered for vaccination locally need not contact the state.
“All of your information was transferred into this new database over the weekend,” Goodman said.
To its credit, the website Vaccinate.Virginia.gov worked flawlessly for me – detecting that I had, in fact, already registered through my local health district.
Still questions and problems persist. CVS, for example, is running a separate vaccination program according to the director of the Blue Ridge Health District, Denise Bonds.
“CVS has its own registration system that does not integrate at all with our system," she noted. "If you’re going to register for one that’s quite a distance from your house, just be aware that you’re going to have to go back there in 3-4 weeks to get that second dose.”
Governor Northam is expected to announce additional details of the new registration system this afternoon.
