Fairfax County addresses confusion on vaccine registration

Now that the Virginia Department of Health has put out a statewide COVID-19 vaccination registration system, there have been a lot of questions about why Fairfax County isn’t participating in it. 

The Fairfax County Department of Health launched its own Vaccine Registration and Data Dashboard and Registration Status Checker last week. 

The county Department of Health issued the following FAQ Feb. 19 to clear up the confusion about the two registration systems. 

Should I register with the county or state? 

If you live in the Fairfax Health District (Fairfax County, City of Fairfax, City of Falls Church and the towns of Vienna, Herndon, and Clifton), you should register with Fairfax County using the online form. If you need additional assistance, contact the vaccine call center at 703-324-7404. 

Virginia also launched a statewide call center this week. If you call that number and have questions about Fairfax County, you will be directed back to the local call center.  

Some people on the Fairfax County waitlist might have received an unsolicited email from the Virginia Department of Health about their registration. Please disregard this email. Your registration is still in the Fairfax County system and your place in the queue has not changed.  

What happens if I register on the state site anyway? 

The Fairfax County Health Department pulls data from the Fairfax County pre-registration system when sending invitations to schedule vaccine appointments, not from the state database. If you do register with the state, that information will be sent to Fairfax County and you will be added to the current waitlist. If you register in both systems, your first registration will be honored and all subsequent ones will be removed.  

Why is Fairfax County not using the statewide registration system? 

According to Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeffrey McKay: “We invested a lot of resources into our registration system and worked out the kinks to ensure we continue to process more people than any other health district in the state. At this point, I am glad we can maintain our system that residents are familiar with to cut down on confusion. We will continue to have conversations with the state about registration as the vaccine process rolls out. We are also excited to have our vaccine dashboard launched that lets you confirm your registration status and see the progress of Fairfax County’s vaccination efforts in a push for improved transparency and communication.”  

Why does the data dashboard still show you are registering for people who signed up on Jan. 18? 

Jan. 18 was the busiest registration day with more than 42,000 people signing up that day. That was when individuals age 65+ and age 16-64 with certain medical conditions were eligible to register. For perspective, the next two busiest registration days were Jan. 11 (almost 11,000) and Jan. 19 (more than 8,000).  

Based on the limited vaccine supply, Fairfax County expects it will take several weeks to schedule appointments for everyone who registered on Jan. 18.  

Also, not all of the Fairfax Health District’s weekly allotment from the state goes directly toward people on that waitlist. Approximately 50 percent of it is used to vaccinate other 1b priority groups in accordance with state guidelines.  

To help expedite the process, Fairfax County distributes vaccine doses regularly to community partners (such as Inova, Trusted Doctors, and George Mason University) to help vaccinate people on the waitlist. In addition, these partners are completing vaccinations for individuals requiring second doses. 

“We understand it may appear as if progress isn’t being made when the date we are scheduling appointments for doesn’t change after quite some time, but please be assured we are,” the county states. “However, it will take some time given the limited supply and allocation process, and we continue to ask for your patience. Please rest assured that you will get an appointment if you are on our list.”

Why am I getting an error message when I enter my information on the status checker? 

This could be happening for a couple of reasons. The first is user error – make sure you are entering your first name, last name, and email address exactly as you entered it when you registered. There have many entries with extra spaces or letters in these fields.  

Another reason could be due to data cleanup this week. The county has identified several issues that were causing problems for users. This includes: 

• People who selected 75+ as a priority group, but whose actual age is between 65-74.
• People who signed up between 12:01 a.m. and noon on Jan. 18 who selected 75+ as a priority group, but whose age indicate they belong in the 16-64 group with chronic medical conditions. 
• Missing records from Jan. 18 and other days where there was a high volume of registrations at one time and some registrations were not fully captured.  

In all of these cases, the data has been automatically corrected and individuals have been placed back in the queue where they originally registered. For errors that affected registrations prior to Jan. 18, those residents have been placed in the Jan. 18 queue.  

If you used the status checker previously and received an error message, check again now to ensure your data is correct.  

If you still receive an error message and would like to speak with somebody about your registration, contact the vaccine call center at 703-324-7404. Call volume remains high. You can also email [email protected].  

I can’t find my registration confirmation email or my appointment schedule email. What should I do? 

First, check your email again, including your spam folder. When you submit your registration form, the email you receive will be from HD COVID Vaccine with an email address of [email protected]. 

When it is time to schedule an appointment, the email you receive will be from “Schedule Appointment” with an email address of [email protected].  

If you still don’t see an email and would like to speak with somebody about your registration, contact the vaccine call center at 703-324-7404. 

What should I do if I confirm my appointment but get another email to schedule an appointment? 

Keep your scheduled appointment and disregard the other email.