Registration of the COVID-19 vaccine for residents aged 65 and over has been suspended in Marion County.
The Marion County Department of Health has temporarily closed the vaccine registration due to registrations that exceeded the department’s initial limit of 50,000 registrations.
“We are limiting the number of people included in this first round of applications to allow the team to review the current list of registrants and vaccinate them fully,” said Marion County Health Department administrator Mark Lander. “We will re-open registration as soon as the first group of 50,000 registrants complete their vaccinations.”
DOH-Marion programmers are calling registrants in the order in which their applications were received. After programmers complete a telephone screening with registrants, they will schedule a vaccination appointment. Due to the number of people who signed up, it will take several weeks to review the list of subscribers and schedule appointments. The department’s first appointments are Tuesday, January 5.
The health department will be vaccinating with Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines in the coming weeks. These vaccines are two-dose injections. Modern requires 28 days between the first and the second shot. Pfizer requires 21 days between the first and the second injection.
DOH-Marion phone lines with overloads
The department continues to have a high volume of phone calls, which causes people to receive messages that the department’s phone numbers are not working. As the phone lines are congested, employees are also struggling to make calls from the facility, and calls are dropping. People who have signed up for a COVID-19 vaccination and have not yet received a call should avoid calling the department to find out where they are on the list or when they will receive a call about a vaccination.
“People who signed up for the system will receive a call back as soon as the vaccine is available and a time and place are set to receive it,” Lander said. “Please know that we are not sitting on any vaccines here. As soon as there are vaccination opportunities, we will be scheduling these vaccination appointments.