Nye County launches self-appointment vaccine system

As the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines continues across Nevada and the United States, Nye County is striving to make the process a bit easier with the launch of an all new self-appointment vaccination system that allows residents to access an online calendar and select from appointment slots as they become available.

“Nye County Emergency Management and its partners are booking appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations through a new online system,” Nye County Public Information Officer Arnold Knightly announced in a press release issued Tuesday, Feb. 9.

With the launch of this new system, the county’s previous method of gathering the names of those who want to get the vaccine, its online vaccine interest form, has been disabled. In addition, the county phone line that had been established to assist those without computer access in submitting a vaccine interest form, 775-751-6313, has now been forwarded to the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services’ call center, which is available to answer questions and help those who may need assistance in scheduling a vaccination appointment.

Knightly said it is important to emphasize that the county and its partners are not doing away with the lists of people seeking a vaccine that have already been compiled through use of the county’s online vaccine interest form and the county telephone number. Those lists are still being steadily worked through, although that process is proving to be somewhat of a challenge.

“What we have found is an overwhelming number of people have either made appointments elsewhere or already been vaccinated, or they are not in the current lanes. There were also multiple submissions from the same people,” Knightly explained.

That is why the county is pleased to have been able to launch the new self-appointment system, which is expected to make the process easier not just for the county and its partners but for members of the public as well.

“This new system is more efficient, but it wasn’t available to us when the county launched our vaccine interest form on January 15,” Knightly said. “We encourage people to use the new online system even if they filled out the vaccine interest form or called and left a message on the phone line. The main mission is to get everyone vaccinated.”

Knightly said it is also imperative to stress that because the county receives its allocation of vaccines on a weekly basis and officials do not know exactly how many doses will be provided, the self-appointment system calendar needs to be regularly updated when the weekly allocation totals are determined. As of Thursday, Feb. 11, the self-appointment calendar was experiencing technical problems and was displaying a message stating that no appointments are available until June. Knightly assured that this was only a mistake and that the county was working to get it corrected, adding that residents are encouraged to keep continually checking the calendar for when the appointment slots are updated. “New dates will be added when vaccine quantities are known,” Knightly said.

Knightly detailed that there had been over 4,400 vaccine interest forms submitted since Jan. 15, with an additional 800-plus phone messages received at the county’s 775-751-6313 number. As of Thursday, Feb. 11 there have been 3,714 vaccination doses administered in Nye County, with 458 residents having received both a first and a second dose.

Nye County is currently focusing on providing vaccines to those who fall into the essential workforce - public safety and security and frontline community support prioritization lanes, as established by the state vaccine playbook, as well as residents ages 70 and older. For a details on who falls into which lane visit nyecounty.net/1101

Information about the availability of the vaccine for those who fall into the other lanes will be announced once the vaccine becomes more widely available to the public later this year.

The self-appointment COVID-19 vaccination calendar can be accessed at https://booking.appointy.com/snyecovid

The Nevada Department of Health and Human Services’ vaccination call center can be reached seven days per week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at 800-401-0946.

Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com