DC Mayor Muriel Bowser urged every adult resident in the District, currently eligible or not, to sign up for receiving the COVID-19 vaccine through the city’s pre-registration portal.
In order to pre-register for a vaccination appointment, one only needs to live or work in DC, according to Bowser’s statement that came on Wednesday.
The mayor also called on Washingtonians to help their family members, friends, and neighbors pre-register via the website or by contacting the call center.
Around 134,500 people have pre-registered through DC Health’s system so far and are currently awaiting an appointment, while more than 13,000 managed to schedule an appointment after pre-registering and receiving an invitation.
Launched last week, the pre-registration system allows individuals to register online 24/7 on vaccinate.dc.gov or by calling the call center from Monday through Friday (8 am to 7 pm) or on weekends (8 am to 4 pm). The call center provides language translation services if needed.
Even after pre-registering, individuals might have to wait for a long time before they get an invitation from DC Health.
Currently eligible populations in the District include:
- DC residents 65 and older
- DC residents 18-64 with a qualifying medical condition
- Members of an eligible workforce
- All essential workers in Phase 1B Tier 3 and Phase 1C Tier 1 who are working in person
- Teachers, child care workers, and school staff even if they are not currently working in person
- Staff working in courts and individuals providing legal services
- Frontline employees of public (mass) transit
- Employees of the US Postal Service
- Staff working in food service
- Essential employees in local government agencies
- Essential employees of public utilities
- Essential employees in health, human, and social services organizations/agencies who were not vaccinated as outreach workers
- Individuals working in commercial and residential property maintenance and environmental services
All DC residents ages 16 and older will become eligible starting May 1. For more information on the groups set to be eligible in the coming weeks, click here.
DC Adds More Groups for Vaccine Eligibility, Relaxes COVID-19 Measures