February 19, 2021  

Frequently Asked Questions About COVID-19 Vaccine Registration

Vaccine FAQs

Over the past week, we have launched our COVID-19 Vaccine Registration and Data Dashboard and our Registration Status Checker. In addition, Virginia launched a statewide vaccine registration system that Fairfax County is not participating in at this time.  

Below are the answers to the most frequently questions about these three new tools.  

Should I register with county or state? 

If you live in the Fairfax Health District (Fairfax County, City of Fairfax, City of Falls Church and the towns of Vienna, Herndon and Clifton), then you should register with Fairfax County using our online form. If you need additional assistance, you can contact our vaccine call center at 703-324-7404. Please note that Virginia also launched a statewide call center this week. If you call that number and have questions about Fairfax County, you will be directed back to our local call center.  

Some people on our waitlist may have received an unsolicited email from the Virginia Department of Health about their registration. Please disregard this email. Your registration is still in the Fairfax County system and your place in the queue has not changed.  

What happens if I register on the state site anyway? 

The Fairfax County Health Department pulls data from the Fairfax County pre-registration system when sending invitations to schedule vaccine appointments, not from the state database. If you do register with the state, that information will be sent to Fairfax County and you will be added to our current waitlist. If you register in both systems, your first registration will be honored and all subsequent ones will be removed.  

Why is Fairfax County not using the statewide registration system? 

According to Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeffrey C. McKay, “We invested a lot of resources into our registration system and worked out the kinks to ensure we continue to process more people than any other health district in the state. At this point, I am glad we can maintain our system that residents are familiar with to cut down on confusion. We will continue to have conversations with the state about registration as the vaccine process rolls out. We are also excited to have our vaccine dashboard launched that lets you confirm your registration status and see the progress of Fairfax County’s vaccination efforts in a push for improved transparency and communication.”  

Why does the data dashboard still show you are registering for people who signed up on Jan. 18? 

Jan. 18 was our busiest registration day with more than 42,000 people signing up that day. That was when individuals age 65+ and age 16-64 with certain medical conditions were eligible to register. For perspective, our next two busiest registration days were Jan. 11 (almost 11,000) and Jan. 19 (more than 8,000).  

Based on our limited vaccine supply, we expect it will take several weeks to schedule appointments for everyone who registered that day.  

Also, not all of our weekly allotment from VDH goes directly towards people on that waitlist. Approximately 50% of it is used to vaccinate other 1b priority groups in accordance with VDH guidelines.  

To help expedite the process, we distribute some vaccine regularly to community partners (such as Inova, Trusted Doctors and George Mason University) to help vaccinate people on our waitlist. In addition, these partners are completing vaccination for individuals requiring second doses. 

We understand it may appear as if progress isn’t being made when the date we are scheduling appointments for doesn’t change after quite some time, but please be assured we are. However, it will take some time given the limited supply and allocation process, and we continue to ask for your patience. Please rest assured that you will get an appointment if you are on our list.  

Why am I getting an error message when I enter my information on the status checker? 

This could be happening for a couple of reasons. The first is user error – please make sure you are entering your first name, last name and email address exactly as you entered it when you registered. We have seen many entries with extra spaces or letters in these fields.  

Another reason could be due to data cleanup this week. We have identified several issues that were causing problems for users. This includes: 

  • People who selected 75+ as a priority group, but whose actual date of birth is between 65-74.
  • People who signed up between 12:01 a.m. and noon on Jan. 18 who selected 75+ as a priority group, but whose age indicate they belong in the 16-64 with chronic medical conditions category. 
  • Missing records from Jan. 18 and other days where there was a high volume of registrations at one time and some registrations were not fully captured.  

In all of these cases, the data has been automatically corrected and individuals have been placed back in the queue where they originally registered. For errors that affected registrations prior to Jan. 18, those residents have been placed in the Jan. 18 queue.  

If you used the status checker previously and received an error message, please check again now to ensure your data is correct.  

If you still receive an error message and would like to speak with somebody about your registration, contact our vaccine call center at 703-324-7404. Call volume remains high. You can also email ffxcovid@fairfaxcounty.gov.  

I can’t find my registration confirmation email or my appointment schedule email. What should I do? 

First, please check your email again, including your spam folder. When you submit your registration form, the email you receive will be from HD COVID Vaccine with an email address of HDCOVIDVaccine@fairfaxcounty.gov. 

When it is time to schedule an appointment, the email you receive will be from Schedule Appointment with an email address of noreply@fairfaxcounty.gov.  

If you still don’t see an email and would like to speak with somebody about your registration, contact our vaccine call center at 703-324-7404. Call volume remains high. You can also email ffxcovid@fairfaxcounty.gov.  

What should I do if I confirm my appointment but get another email to schedule an appointment? 

Please keep your scheduled appointment and disregard the other email. 

Stay Informed

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