UPDATE ON VACCINE SCHEDULING
The good news from yesterday’s release of a new vaccine scheduling web link is that more than 2,700 people were able to schedule a vaccine appointment between today and next Monday before the schedule filled. Of course, it’s true that a lot of other eager people were unable to find an appointment on the new site, and experienced issues with it also.
“We apologize for the issues,” stated John Atkinson, EAMC spokesman. “Our hospital team is working with our 3rd party vendor to help ensure the site runs more smoothly.” Atkinson says the clinic did open additional time slots and have heard from people that they were able to schedule their appointment without any trouble. “Our desire is for the process to be seamless, but we ask for your patience as thousands of people in the community are vying for an appointment and it will simply take a while to accommodate everyone due to vaccine limitations.”
Atkinson said there are about 200,000 people in the 3-county area served by this clinic, including about 30,000 people who are age 65 and greater. “While we are vaccinating other sub-groups who are essential to our community, we know residents age 65 and greater are among the most vulnerable so it’s of the utmost importance that we are able to vaccinate them as quickly as possible,” Atkinson said.
***Important New Information***
- If you received a text or email confirming your appointment, then you are scheduled to receive a vaccine at that date and time. However, if you did NOT receive a confirmation text or email, the system did not accept your appointment and you will need to log in again to see if new slots are available.
- The 5-day registration window is a “rolling” window, meaning that a new day of time slots will open each morning at 8 a.m. When those spots are filled, it will be 8 a.m. the next day before a guaranteed set of new time slots is opened. However, additional time slots may be added sporadically if it is determined that the clinic can accommodate extra vaccinations. New time slots for next Tuesday will be added tonight (exact time unknown) and the time slots for next Wednesday will open tomorrow morning at 8 a.m.
- Vaccinations at this clinic are limited to residents who live or work in Lee, Chambers or Macon counties.
- If you are age 65 or greater and your photo ID lists your residence as a different county, please bring a utility bill or other documentation that shows your current residence as being in Lee, Chambers or Macon county.
- If you are younger than 65 (or 65 and greater and still employed) and your photo ID lists your residence as a different county, please bring paperwork that proves you are employed in one of the three listed counties.
- When registering online, please read the attestation statement after choosing your sub-group; the staff at the clinic will be following it closely and you may be asked to leave if you cannot properly identify yourself as a resident who currently qualifies for a vaccination.
- Each person seeking a vaccination needs to have login information. You can use that information to log in and check for your scheduled appointment time for both your 1st dose and your 2nd dose.
- When scheduling your 1st dose appointment, please be sure that you can also make the 2nd dose appointment which is automatically set for the same time 3 weeks later.
- If you are experiencing issues with any of the drop-down menus, it may be a result of the browser you are using. Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Apple Safari have been tested and work as designed.
- As a reminder, appointments are based on the clinic continuing to receive vaccine. Appointments are subject to change if allotments of vaccine are unavailable.
The link to register and self-schedule is https://eastalcovidvaccine.com/login.
Thanks again for your patience and understanding as we launch this new clinic and website link.