An online portal opened Monday morningfor scheduling a COVID-19 vaccine appointments through public health in the Coastal Health District.
Appointmentsfilled up quickly, but more will become available Tuesday.
Memorial Health is opening a vaccine clinic later this week, with online only appointment schedulingavailableat www.memorialhealth.com.
Public health appointments are available for Georgia residents in Phase 1a and Phase 1a+, which includes healthcare workers, emergency first responders, adults age 65 and older, and caregivers of adults age 65 and older, the health district announced in a press release.
Memorial's appointments are only for those age 65 and older.
More:Memorial to begin COVID shots for seniors; St. Joseph's/Candler clinic vaccinating 500 a day
More:Numbers to call and web sites to check for making an appointment for a COVID vaccine in Chatham
The Coastal Health District's online portal is at chdcovidvax.org.
The portal allows scheduling eight days into the future. Individuals who registered for the District’s notification list were notified early Monday of the portal's opening.
By about 11a.m. the schedule was full for the next eight days, said spokeswoman Sally Silbermann. About 4,300 appointments were scheduled in the first three hours.New slots will open on a rolling basis as they become available in the eight-day window.
"We sent a blast e-mail to the people who signed up to be notified when appointments opened back up, and they went quickly," Silbermann said.
The eight-county Coastal Health District will be scheduling 8,868 vaccine appointments per week. Half of those are first doses. Of those total doses, about 3,800 per week are scheduled in Chatham County, the most populous county on the coast, said Coastal Health District Health Director Dr. Lawton Davis.
More:Memorial to begin COVID shots for seniors; St. Joseph's Candler clinic vaccinating 500 a day
Half of those are first doses and Chatham is vaccinating five to six days per week, making about 316-380 available for each new appointment day that becomes available.
That's not a lot of new opportunity for the estimate 50,000 seniors in Chatham County alone who qualify for the vaccine. Otherentities are providing the vaccine including St. Joseph's/Candler, which is calling qualified patients in the care of its primary care physicians, and at Memorial, which is rolling out its offsite vaccination plans this week.
The Coastal Health District developed its own online portal to take appointments more efficiently than through phone calls.
"What we're doing right now is our own work around," Davis said. "You know, (the Georgia Department of Public Healthhas) been working on an online system for quite some time with Microsoft. It's basically a modification of the same scheduling process that people useto schedule a testing appointment. And I honestly don't know why it is so long, but it's still not available. And so what we will do, we're really only scheduling out eight days and only eight days ahead."
When the state system become available in a predicted two weeks, the Coastal District will migrate its appointments to that system.
Residents who do not have online access or need assistance can schedule by phone at 912-230-5506 with operators there using the same portal that's available to the public. Telephone wait times may be long, officials warn. The phone line is intended for those who lack a computer or internet access.
Georgia residents can schedule an appointment in any county where the vaccine is available, not only their county of residence. All eight coastal counties are listed on the portal.
"I think the number of people in the 65 and over group that want a vaccineis still much greater than the number of vaccines we have available," Davis said. "And again, that's good and bad. You know, it's it's bad and it's frustrating for them, but it's good that they want to get it."
Appointments are available on a first-come, first-served basis for qualifying individuals, and can be scheduled up to eight days in advance, depending on vaccine availability. The scheduling system is for first dose appointments only. Second dose appointments are booked at the time the first dose is administered.
“We hope this system will provide easier access to appointments, but please understand the demand for vaccine still far outweighs the supply. I ask for continued patience as we move forward with our vaccination effort,” Davis said.
Additional information about vaccine and about vaccine providers can be found at covid19.gachd.org/vaccine.
Mary Landers is the environment and health reporter at the Savannah Morning News. Contact her at 912-655-8295. Twitter: @MaryLandersSMN
