Vaccines opening to general public; new appointment alert tool launched by CovidWA.com

Everyone 16 years and older in Washington will be eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday.

It’s a landmark moment that will bring another crush of people trying to obtain vaccine appointments.

The people who brought you CovidWA.com have now launched another tool to help.

You can text or call in your ZIP code to phone number 206-222-9793, which is answered by a bot. The bot texts you when there are appointment openings within 20 miles of your ZIP code. The site’s creators say phone numbers are not shared anywhere else.

The idea is for the text to save you a little bit of time when trying to book an appointment, which can be an intense competition where slots are claimed in moments.

“Checking the same site every day can be a bit frustrating. It’s a bit of a lottery. If it (a notice) comes to you, that’s one step up. So just trying to reduce frustration for users,” said Daniel Morris, one of the cofounders of CovidWA.com.

Morris said the new text alert feature for available appointments was built in large part by a high schooler, Evan Mazor of Roosevelt High School.

Morris warns in the first few days, spots will be very limited.

“You may not see too much availability but keep checking,” Morris said. He also points out if many people in your ZIP code have signed up for the texts, that also adds to the competition.

Morris says he and the other staffers — all volunteers — are ready for the new wave of people hunting for a shot.

“I’ll be up at midnight tonight to see what happens,” Morris said. He said since the website launched in February, he’s spent about 30 hours a week working on it outside of his full-time job.

“We are excited, hopefully we get the vaccine soon,” said Pramod Jagtap, who is still waiting to sign up. He said he’s planning to wait a few days after appointments open up to everyone, to hopefully avoid the rush.

“I definitely think the next few days it’s going to be pretty slammed,” said Mike Foltz, who said he used the CovidWA website to book an appointment last week.

Experts remind you that demand still far outweighs supply in Washington.

“My daughter is still waiting, she can’t even register until April 15 so she’s going to stay up, and wake up early morning and refresh, refresh, refresh. We all need to be patient,” said Dr. Ali Mokdad, a scientist with the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME) and UW Medicine.

Morris said CovidWA.com also provides about 90% of the data for the state’s official vaccine locator website, https://vaccinelocator.doh.wa.gov/. The two websites have brought in about 2.5 million unique visitors.

“It’s been a shock first of all, the number of users that we’ve had, but it’s actually great we’ve been able to help that many people,” Morris said.

Health experts say the day when everyone who wants a shot has one is right around the corner.

“The concern for me is, we’re going to reach a moment very soon where people who want to get a vaccine will have a vaccine, and we’ll have more vaccines than people who are willing to come and get the vaccine,” Mokdad said.

Morris says he hopes one day soon, the website site that’s helped so many will no longer be necessary.

“I’m praying for it,” he said.

VIDEO: Vaccines opening to general public

Cox Media Group