DC will release an additional wave of COVID-19 vaccination appointments on Saturday, after a glitch blocked many residents from signing up for the shot through the online portal on Thursday and Friday morning.
A total of 3,500 appointments will be made available for DC residents 18 years and older who have qualifying medical conditions and are living in priority zip codes on Saturday, February 27, at 9 am.
Currently, priority ZIP codes are 20422, 20011, 20017, 20018, 20002, 20001, 20019, 20020, 20032 and 20593, focusing on Wards 5, 7, and 8.
On Thursday, February 25, individuals with certain medical conditions who became eligible for coronavirus vaccination on that day failed to register for scheduling appointments because of a technical error on DC Health’s website. The same issue was also reported on Friday.
Frustrated residents lashed out at the District government on the social media, saying the system was not updated to include the newly eligible population, which was considered to be the cause of the problem.
In a statement, DC Health apologized for the complication, and claimed that it was caused by high traffic.
“We apologize for the issues with the vaccination portal this morning. The District’s COVID-19 vaccination appointment portal did not perform as expected due to a technical review failure that resulted in eligible residents with a qualifying medical condition being unable to register. As the IT team worked to stabilize the website due to heavy traffic, there were delays in finding and fixing the issue with the eligibility criteria.”
An extra 4,350 appointments opened on Friday at 9 am.
Eligible residents may schedule appointments through the vaccination portal or by calling 1-855-363-0333.
Qualifying medical conditions are as follows:
- Asthma
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other chronic lung disease
- Bone marrow and solid organ transplantation
- Cancer
- Cerebrovascular disease
- Chronic kidney disease
- Congenital heart disease
- Diabetes mellitus
- Heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathies
- HIV
- Hypertension
- Immunocompromised state
- Inherited metabolic disorders
- Intellectual and developmental disabilities
- Liver disease
- Neurologic conditions
- Obesity, BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2
- Pregnancy
- Severe genetic disorders
- Sickle cell disease
- Thalassemia