The Alabama Department of Public Health on Monday announced the department’s COVID-19 “Vaccination Eligibility Check and Scheduling Portal” is live.
The website — found at alcovidvaccine.gov — allows visitors to enter information to schedule to be vaccinated, and will tell them if they’re eligible, but only if the county in which they live is currently accepting appointments. If a person’s county is not — and many weren’t on Monday — the site won’t allow the user to determine their eligibility.
The site does have a link to ADPH’s drive-thru and walk-in vaccination clinics dashboard, which shows how many such sites are located within a certain distance from the user’s address. It also allows users to enter information to be notified when vaccines are available in their county. The site also has information about the vaccines themselves, and what to bring when getting vaccinated, and what to expect.
“The demand for vaccine continues to greatly exceed supply as Alabama has more than 326,000 healthcare workers and nearly 350,000 people who now qualify for a vaccine because they are 75 years of age or older,” ADPH said in a press release. “On February 8, the addition of people 65 or older and frontline critical workers will add over 1 million more people that are eligible to receive a vaccine.”
“Sites listed in the portal have limited supply of vaccine available. Current assessment of vaccine supply and expectations for shipments over the next month indicate that many public health clinics will have to focus heavily on providing second doses for the month of February,” the press release continued. “As appointments may not be available immediately, the limitation of appointments is directly related to the amount of vaccine provided by the federal government. If supply of vaccine products from the federal government increases, ADPH expects that access to appointments for priority groups will increase as well. Individuals are encouraged to visit drive-through and walk-in clinics, or other vaccine providers, if appointments are not currently available at a county health department location.”
ADPH has administered 359,589 doses of vaccine as of Monday, which was approximately 52 percent of the vaccine supplied to the state. An additional 43,920 of the 81,900 doses delivered by the federal government for the state’s long-term care facilities have been administered.
