Website launched for Alabamians to schedule COVID-19 vaccine appointments, check eligibility

The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) announced on Monday a website that citizens of the state can use to check if they are eligible for the coronavirus vaccines, and if so, schedule an appointment to receive one.

The site, similar to the preexisting vaccine scheduling hotline, only enables members of the public to schedule an appointment at their local county health department. If no appointments are available, individuals can sign up to be notified when more vaccine product is delivered to their area.

The web portal also links to a map of where drive-in and walk-up clinics that don’t require an appointment will be located.

The county health departments where the portal can schedule an appointment are often not the only location in an area dispensing vaccine doses; some shots are given to hospitals and other providers with their own scheduling system.

Jefferson County is running an independent COVID-19 vaccination process from the rest of the state. It has set up a separate hotline to call, and web portal to use that are only accessible by residents of the county.

Currently, health care workers, people age 75 or higher and first responders are eligible to get the vaccine in Alabama.

On February 8, eligibility will expand to anyone age 65 and over and a number of categories of front line workers.

All providers must obey the ADPH rules for who is eligible to receive the vaccine.

Both vaccines currently approved for public use require two shots given a few weeks apart.

Vaccine doses in Alabama remain vanishingly scarce. Currently, around 400,000 unused doses have been delivered to the state, but ADPH says they are almost all second doses waiting on their designated recipient to enter the proper time window to get their second shot.

What few first doses there are in the state are likely to have already been assigned to someone with an appointment.

The new website to schedule a vaccination at a county health department can be found here.

A map of all locations in Alabama certified to give out vaccine doses can be found here, though, to see it, users must click the “Vaccine Providers” tab at the bottom of the page.

Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: [email protected] or on Twitter @HenryThornton95.