Ocean County Health Department sending out emails for 2nd vaccination appointments

Have you been able to receive your first Covid-19 vaccination yet?

If not, be patient, they're on the way.

If you have, you should be receiving an email from the Ocean County Health Department any day now requesting that you schedule an appointment to receive your 2nd vaccination of the Modera vaccine, which is what the OCHD is administering at their clinics.

You'll get a No-Reply email from the OCHD (no-reply@ochd.info) informing you of the date you received your first vaccine.

The email will then tell you that "It is imperative that you receive the second dose for maximum protection. The second dose should be administered no sooner than 28 days after the first dose."

You'll then see a hyperlink in the email sending you to an OCHD portal where you confirm your information and then schedule out your second vaccination appointment, which again should be no sooner than 28-days from the day of your first shot, and ideally no later than 40 days after your first shot.

After completing the information on the OCHD website and scheduling your second appointment, you'll be asked to print out the form and bring it with you to that next appointment.

If you haven't received the email yet, not to worry, last week the OCHD issued a statement saying that, "anyone who received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at one of the OCHD vaccination sites can expect to receive their second dose email within 2 weeks of receiving their first dose."

It'll prompt you to either the clinic at the RWJ-Barnabas Health Arena in Toms River or the new clinic at Southern Regional Middle School in Manahawkin.

The OCHD also reminds you that, "appointments are NONTRANSFERABLE. Only the person named on the appointment will be able to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at that specific date/time. Please do NOT send anyone else in your place – they will be turned away."

In the meantime, Ocean County Public Health Coordinator Dan Regenye recommends that if you're looking for an appointment and there's nothing available, keep checking back to their website for updates.

So many hurdles and challenges in the present and more to come leaving a glaring question or two on when the pace will be picked up, when more sites will be open, when people will be able to get vaccinated.

He sums of the challenges of the process right now to two main issues...staffing and having enough of the vaccine itself.

"We have 100 plus sites throughout the county that we can easily open up if we can just have the staffing and the vaccine in hand to be able to do so," Regenye told Townsquare Media Jersey Shore News on January 19.

That's part of the plan in place, Regenye explains, which overall, is a community based model to provide the vaccine in as many different areas within Ocean County as possible.

While they have a plan in place to execute, they need more vaccine doses from the state to be able to do so which would allow more sites to open up as well.

"As we continue to get more of the vaccine and more staffing on board, I definitely see more of this community based model continuing and hitting all geographic locations within the county really mirroring what we do with our seasonal flu program where we have close to 100 sites throughout the county that we hit within a month/month-and-a-half," Regenye said. "I see us moving in that direction but the process will be a little different though setting up with appointments and the clinic flow is different but we're definitely looking to expand into more of a community based model."

They're also in need of additional staff and volunteers who can help administer the vaccine and be an extra hand on deck ready to do whatever is needed.

You can follow Vin Ebenau on Twitter and Instagram and email news tips to vin.ebenau@townsquaremedia.com.

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