There’s much to be said about that old saying… “one step forward and two steps back.” Luckily we may finally be looking at one very big leap forward. Truthfully, if the past few months have taught us anything it’s accepting the fact that getting coordinated accurate information has been just as big a challenge as getting vaccine shots in arms.
In an attempt to address this much needed system, the state of California rolled out a pilot website where people can sign up to receive alerts on when they’re eligible and then schedule an appointment.
The MyTurn system is operating on a trial basis for residents in San Diego and Los Angeles counties, with Gov. Gavin Newsom saying the system will hopefully be available statewide by early February. The online MyTurn registry isn’t well-known yet and still is a work in progress, but California residents in any county will eventually be able to register on this website to be notified when it’s their turn for the vaccine.
Currently, it only can be used to schedule appointments for health care workers and people 65 and older in Los Angeles and San Diego counties however, other counties are well on their way to utilizing this site. You can also still sign up in the meantime regardless of your residential county. All that’s needed is a phone number or email address where they can notify you, to sign up.
Officials are aiming to make it fully available throughout the state in early February.
“It provides for providers the ability to have all that data automatically shared, not only with the state, but ultimately allow us to quickly share that data with the federal government,” Newsom said.
He also said he believes this new program will help get the information to the CDC more quickly and cut down on numbers reporting lag time, “It will eliminate unnecessary paperwork and old systems that many clinics and vaccine providers struggle with”.
The MyTurn website advises people without an email address or a cell phone to call the state’s COVID hotline at (833) 422-4255.
