ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — In St. Louis County, you no longer need to fill out a COVID-vaccination registration form online and wait to receive invitation. As of Tuesday, pre-registration is no longer needed.
That was the announcement Monday morning from St. Louis County Executive Dr. Sam Page. Congresswoman Cori Bush, D-St. Louis, was a part of the briefing and said vulnerable populations, including people of color, need to ask questions and then get the vaccine.
“Beginning Tuesday, you no longer need to pre-register for a vaccine appointment with the Department of Public Health. Now that we are no longer sorting appointments by tier, you can simply log on to stlcorona.com beginning Tuesday and schedule a time you'd like to receive your shot," Page said. "Then you select which vaccination site run by the Department of Public Health is most convenient for you.”
John and Patty O’Donnell turned out to a vaccination clinic at St. Louis County Health Department offices Monday. Three weeks passed from the time they pre-registered to the time they got a vaccination invitation.
“I think that’s great,” said Patty.
John agreed. “It’s more convenient,” he said.
They were asked if they thought it will expedite the process for people and get more people in for COVID-19 vaccinations.
“It’ll make it easier,” said John.
Patty laughed. “Yeah,” she said, “because we registered everywhere.”
Steve King also got his second and final shot Monday.
“Well, I think maybe the lines will be longer,” said King, “but I think people will be able to get it faster. They won’t have to wait so long for a site to pop up or something like that.”
Rep. Bush said people of color are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 infection and death.
“So, what we're asking,” said Bush, “is that you receive this vaccination to make sure we're keeping our families, our communities and yourselves safe. And let's get through this pandemic together.”
St. Louis County Health Director Dr. Faisal Khan said, “So this makes it much easier and streamlined for somebody to just click on a website or web link and pick a date and time that works for them and get an appointment straight away.”
Khan said the next development is that there will be no online process at all. He suggested mornings or afternoons, for example, will be reserved for people to walk in to county vaccination locations, register on-site and get their shots.
That could happen in the next couple of weeks.
And Khan points out these developments have come about because vaccines are becoming more and more available.