DeKALB – If you are a local healthcare worker in Phase 1A and haven’t yet received your first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, local health officials are urging you to sign up for an appointment as soon as possible, and you could get one as early as Thursday.
The DeKalb County Health Department is overseeing COVID-19 vaccine distribution for the county according to a tiered system established by the federal government which currently is prioritizing only those who work in healthcare fields and long-term care facility residents.
If anyone in that Phase 1A group, or any business related to the health-care field as designated by the phases (see below) hasn’t yet received their first dose of vaccine, health officials are urging those people and businesses to register with the DeKalb County Health Department’s online registration system as soon as possible, and you will be notified of an appointment to receive the vaccine.
It could be as early as Thursday, when health officials are coordinating a vaccine pop-up for Phase 1A groups only. While the registration system doesn’t guarantee you a vaccine, it will put you in line according to your designated phase so health officials know to put aside a certain number of vaccine allotments for those priority groups first.
CVS and Walgreens are partnering with the federal government to oversee long-term care vaccine distribution, which began in DeKalb County this week, confirmed Lisa Gonzalez, public health administrator for the DeKalb County Health Department.
To register for an appointment, which could be as early as Thursday, and to receive a time, location and other logistical details for your vaccine, go to www.health.dekalbcounty.org/about/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccination/.
Those who register will receive confirmation and notification from the DeKalb County Health Department when it’s their turn for a vaccine, which will be appointment-based. Those receiving the vaccine are expected to provide Photo ID at the time, along with proof of employment at a hospital or designated healthcare facility per Phase 1A protocol, Gonzalez said.
Thursday’s appointments will be for Phase 1A designees only, stressed Gonzalez, and is not open for the general public or those outside that phased group.
Those eligible in Phase 1A to receive a vaccination include anyone working inside a hospital as: nurses and nursing assistants, physicians, practitioners and physician assistants, respiratory technicians, pharmacists, environmental services staff, phlebotomists, infectious waste workers, COVID sample lab workers, organ harvesters, students on clinical rotations, dietary staff, clergy/pastors/chaplains, interpreters, crisis intervention staff, laundry or security staff, reception staff, emergency medical service providers, fire department staff acting as EMS workers, air medical transport workers, X-ray technicians.
Non-hospital healthcare workers eligible for Phase 1A vaccination include those who work in medical outpatient facilities, public health clinics, LHD Points of Distribution or federally qualified health centers: nursing and nursing assistants, physicians and nurse practitioners, respiratory technicians, dentists and hygienists, pharmacists, plasma and blood donation staff, morticians, public health nurses, home health care workers, school nurses, optometrists, COVID testing staff, dermatologists, dialysis staff, urgent care workers, corrections nurses and aides, medical flight transport workers, physical/occupational/speech therapists, vaccine clinic workers.
Source: The Daily Chronicle
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