D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Wednesday that everyone who lives or works in the District should preregister for the COVID-19 vaccine, even if they aren’t currently eligible.
In a statement from her office, Bowser called on residents to help friends, family and neighbors who need assistance signing up.
This is a change from last week, just before the preregistration site went live. The old site crashed from too many visitors, and during the announcement of the new site, D.C. Health Director Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt said, “What we don’t want is everyone to rush to the website at one time … There’s no advantage to a person registering now who’s not eligible.”
The website for registering is vaccinate.dc.gov, or people can call the D.C. call center at 855-363-0333 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
This week, D.C. is receiving 24,068 doses of vaccine, Bowser’s office said — 13,630 doses for the D.C. Health Department; 7,735 doses for hospitals and health centers and 2,703 doses for special initiatives.
A few new groups of people were made eligible this week; you can find the list of qualifying professions on the D.C. vaccination site.
Under the preregistration system, appointments are sent out Thursdays and Sundays by 10 a.m. Appointment invitations will also be sent out Tuesdays by 10 a.m. if there are any slots still unfilled for the week. When you get an invitation, you have 48 hours to book the appointment before your name goes back in the system.
More than 13,000 people have preregistered, received an invitation and booked an appointment so far, the statement said, and about 134,500 people have preregistered and are waiting for an appointment.
The breakdown of how appointments will be given out:
- 20% for D.C. residents in priority ZIP codes who are 65 and older
- 20% for D.C. residents in any ZIP code who are 65 and older
- 20% for D.C. residents in priority ZIP codes who are 18-64 with a qualifying medical condition
- 20% for D.C. residents in any ZIP code who are 18-64 with a qualifying medical condition
- 10% for D.C. residents in priority ZIP codes who are members of an eligible workforce who are 18 and older
- 10% go to members of an eligible workforce who are 18 and older, regardless of home address
The current priority ZIP codes are 20422, 20011, 20017, 20018, 20002, 20003, 20019, 20020, 20032 and 20593.
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Looking for more information? D.C., Maryland and Virginia are each releasing more data every day. Visit their official sites here: Virginia | Maryland | D.C.
