ROANOKE, Va – Large shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine have local health districts working to make sure appointments can be filled and no dose goes to waste.
There are currently hundreds of appointments available on Wednesday at the Berglund Center. You can sign up here.
Those living in the cities of Covington, Roanoke, and Salem, as well as those in Alleghany, Botetourt, Craig, and Roanoke counties, are able to register for an appointment.
For the better part of 2021, Dr. Cynthia Morrow’s number one priority was to get enough COVID-19 vaccines into the Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts.
“Every shot that goes into an arm is a step in the right direction,” Morrow said.
But now a new focus, making sure there are enough people signed up to actually get their shot.
“Last week I was saying that we had so much demand and that was a good thing, and our demand in the general population appears to be relatively low,” Morrow said.
Everyone preregistered in the health district has been contacted to make an appointment, but there are still some going unfilled.
“For so long we were saying there just wasn’t enough vaccine in our district and this is not true of every other district in our district, right now we have enough vaccine so please do your part and get vaccinated,” Morrow said.
Now the Virginia Department of Health is looking at new ways to use what doses they have to bring to communities that may have had trouble getting to a traditional mass vaccination clinic.
The district has a handful of cases where a fully vaccinated person has still contracted COVID-19.
“The key message here is, it’s your turn, go ahead, sign up, get vaccinated protect yourself protect your loved ones that were in that fortunate position, so we really want to make sure that everybody gets vaccinated,” Morrow said.
The clinics at the Berglund Center are still appointment only but the VDH is encouraging everyone to get registered on the state’s website and help fill open vaccination appointments.