Nearly 50,000 Dallas Residents Sign Up for Coronavirus Vaccines on City’s Registry Two Days After Launch

Patients’ samples await testing for the new coronavirus at a hospital in Wales. Credit: PA via Reuters

Only two days after Dallas County’s health department launched a website to let residents register for COVID-19 vaccines, nearly 50,000 people have signed up, the county’s health director said Monday.

The site, which opened Saturday, is signing up people in Dallas County who qualify for phases 1A and 1B of the vaccine rollout. Phase 1A includes health care workers and people who live in long-term care facilities. Phase 1B includes people who are 65 and older, or who are 16 and older and have at least one underlying condition that puts them at higher risk of complications from COVID-19, such as cancer, diabetes or pregnancy.

The county is still working to vaccinate people in Phase 1A and vaccine supplies remain extremely limited, said Dr. Philip Huang, the health director.

When more doses arrive — which Huang said he hopes will be soon — health officials can begin working through the registration list to vaccinate more eligible residents.

Opening the registration to lower-priority groups will depend on how quickly additional doses become available.

State officials have estimated immunizations may be available to the general public in the spring.

“We all want to get this vaccine out,” Huang said, but with a limited number of doses now, officials are trying “to get it to the people where it’s going to make the biggest impact.”

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SOURCE: The Dallas Morning News, Tom Steele and Nic Garcia