Nebraska preparing to launch vaccine registration website

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraskans who want to register for a coronavirus vaccination should be able to do so online or by phone soon, state officials said Thursday.

Officials with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services said they plan to launch their new registration website in about two weeks and a telephone hotline in roughly 10 days.

The system will allow people to register for a vaccine even if they aren’t eligible right away, said Angie Ling, the department’s incident commander for the pandemic. The state is offering vaccinations in phases, with an initial focus on front-line health care workers and people who work at or live in long-term care facilities.

“When we activate the next phase, we’ll send you a reminder and say, ‘Hey, your phase is ready to be vaccinated,’” Ling said in a Facebook live chat to answer public questions about the state’s vaccination plan.

Ling said residents can also contact their own doctors or pharmacies to schedule a vaccination. State officials have previously said vaccines won’t be available to the general public until April.

She said the rollout is taking place at a different pace in different parts of the state. In rural, western Nebraska, some people who are at least 75 years old are already eligible to get vaccinated.

Ling said the state is working with a network of doctors, hospitals, public health officials and others to make sure the vaccines are being distributed quickly. She urged residents to remain patient and warned that local public health clinics are getting bombarded with calls and may not be able to respond to questions right away.

The number of vaccines being administered in Nebraska jumped significantly this week as the state continued to inoculate health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities.

The state said 13,732 vaccinations were administered Tuesday, which was more than triple the previous daily high of 4,210 on Dec. 23. Officials have said they expect the pace of vaccine distribution to speed up over the next two weeks.

At least 53,418 of the 108,188 doses of the vaccine the state has received have now been administered. The drugs were manufactured by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna.

Lifespan Health Services administrator Sara Morgan said people who residents who want to choose which vaccine they receive should ask their health care provider. The companies’ vaccines both require two doses to provide full immunity. Morgan said residents should get both of their doses from same brand and not mix the two.

The state reported 1,436 new virus cases and 11 deaths Wednesday to give the state 172,469 cases and 1,703 deaths since the pandemic began.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Nebraska decreased over the past two weeks from 1,066.14 new cases per day on Dec. 23 to 1,036 new cases per day on Wednesday.

The number of people hospitalized with the virus in the state declined Wednesday to 506 from the previous day’s 515. That number has stayed steady over the past two weeks.

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Associated Press writer Josh Funk contributed from Omaha.

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