City of El Paso makes push to centralize vaccine registration process with UMC
EL PASO, Texas -- The state of Texas recognizes two major vaccination hubs in El Paso, with one being the City of El Paso and the other being El Paso County through University Medical Center.
To date more than 170,000 residents have registered to receive the Covid-19 vaccine and City Manager Tommy Gonzalez said Monday that he would like to change the registration process to become a centralized system.
"We have communicated this concern to the state that we have different systems by virtue of their requirement and we would like to work through a centralized registration system," Gonzalez said.
As it stands, the city has a pre-registration process where people sign up on a waiting list and are notified when there is a dose available for them as new vaccine shipments arrive.
Meantime, UMC handles registrations for the Covid-19 vaccine on a first-come, first-serve basis. Registration for the vaccine at UMC has filled up in recent weeks in just minutes, leaving many to feel like they are on the outside looking in.
The quick registration portal by UMC can be seen as counter productive for seniors who may not be versed in technology, making it more difficult for them to sign up for the vaccine. As a result, UMC CEO Jacob Cintron, said the county will now reserve vaccines specifically for these groups.
"These are individuals that may not have a computer that may not have the grandsons, the sons and daughter,s the grandchildren that can log them in. And we are going to be working to logistically get them at least 900 of those vaccinated this week," Cintron said.
While many may feel frustrated at the vaccine roll out, both county and city officials are getting recognition from the state and federal government. El Paso has a 90% vaccination efficiency rate, that ranks 26% higher than the next nearest large county in Texas, Travis County.
"That is our goal to try to increase the number of vaccines that we receive, so both the state and the federal delegation have championed the idea of El Paso being a test bed for mega sites that FEMA is now being a part of in the not so distant future. This is great news that we got the attention of the state and federal government so that we can hopefully increase the dosages that we've been receiving," Gonzalez explained.
County leaders did not immediately indicate whether they supported the city's proposal to combine registration efforts.
