KENTUCKY, USA — People who are age 70 and older in Shelby, Henry, Trimble, and Spencer counties can now register to get the COVID Vaccine.
But even if you’re eligible to register, actually doing so might be tough. The COVID vaccine phone line has been busy all day.
Marilyn Fischer, 75, spent the entire day on the phone Monday starting at 8:00 a.m..
“Sometimes it would ring, I could get it past busy, and it would ring and ring and ring and then it would drop me,” Fischer said.
Finally, around 3:00 in the afternoon, she got through to the North Central District Health Department to make an appointment to get her COVID-19 Vaccine.
“I felt pretty fortunate that I got on finally,” Fischer said. “I said ‘oh, a human!’ I was so happy.”
But not everyone had been so lucky. Carol Luxemburg, 71, tried calling 175 times since Monday morning, and hasn’t gotten through. She has been waiting to get the vaccine, saying that it will be “a shot of freedom” for her.
“Like a lot of people my age, I have been in since March, I have been totally isolated,” Luxemburg said. I haven’t seen my grandchildren but one time since March.”
The North Central District Health Department is working on ways to become more efficient by adding an online scheduler to help people make their appointments. The form will be active Tuesday here.
Tony Millet with NCDHD asks that people who have been trying to get an appointment keep trying.
"We are working as fast as possible; we are a small group of people doing a big job of protecting the community. We want to get these vaccines out to the public and we ask the community to continue public safety guidelines by washing hands, wearing masks, and maintain social distancing until they can receive the vaccine," Millet wrote in a statement to WHAS.
NCDHD has 150 vaccines available for each day this week, and will be adding additional days in the coming weeks as the vaccine becomes available.
The phone number to schedule an appointment is (502)390-2600.
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