RICHMOND, Va. — The Virginia Department of Health is centralizing COVID-19 vaccine registration, changing how residents register for the COVID-19 vaccine and creating a statewide system to manage the data.
Instead of having people register with local health departments, the state plans to combine all of the city and county signups into one master list.
A release from the VDH Friday said local health departments will shut down their pre-registration forms on Feb. 12 at 5 p.m., and Virginia would get the statewide pre-registration form up and running by Feb. 16.
Between Friday and Tuesday, people will not be able to pre-register for a COVID-19 vaccine through a health department website in Virginia.
If you're already on a local waitlist, the VDH will will transfer your name over to the state's waitlist, and public health leaders said people would "maintain their current status in the queue."
"During the weekend, the Commonwealth will de-duplicate, clean, and consolidate the data from the local health district systems," the release said. "In addition, data from the Virginia Immunization Information System will be used to remove individuals from the pre-registration list who have already been vaccinated."
The VDH system change affects vaccine registrations through local health departments, but it won’t affect people who are getting shots through private providers or through CVS Health.
For example, Bayview Physicians Group gave out 510 vaccine doses to its patients at a Friday clinic at The Founders Inn in Virginia Beach.
"I didn’t even feel it, I didn’t realize he had given me the shot and he was all finished, it was wonderful," said Dorothy Krejcarek, a 94-year-old who received her first dose Friday. "I’ll feel more comfortable going out into a restaurant or shopping, or doing most anything outside the house."
BPG gets vaccine doses from local health departments and directly from the state. The private provider receives about 1,000 shots per week right now.
BPG is reaching out directly to its patients to schedule appointments, so their plans won’t be affected by the state’s new system.
VDH leaders also said vaccine registrations through CVS Health and its pharmacies are separate from the new state database.
Virginia received 130,000 vaccine doses this week, compared to 105,000 last week.
That increase does not include the additional doses provided to CVS Health as part of a federal pharmacy partnership.