Greenwich Schools shared information about vaccination sign ups with parents on Thursday that came from Director of the Greenwich Dept of Health, Caroline Baisley.
Baisley noted that the best way for the parent of a high school student 18+ to make an appointment for their child’s COVID-19 vaccination through the Greenwich Dept of Health is to begin the registration process for their children on VAMS.
Connecticut residents age 16-44 became eligible for vaccines on Thursday, with access to schedule appointments beginning Thursday morning.
The Dept of Health administers Moderna vaccine, which is only suitable for people 18+, but people age 16 and 17 are not eligible for the Moderna vaccine.
The Dept of Health recommends parents not use their own email address to try to register their child because the VAMS system requires unique emails for each individual.
VAMS will not recognize an email address that has been used already for vaccination or a parent will be unable to use their own email if they plan to sign-up themselves to be vaccinated.
The district recommends that students who want to register in VAMS use their student email address or their own personal email address.
Once a student (or parent on behalf of a student) requests to register for VAMS they will receive an email from the CDC within 24 hours telling them to go back into the VAMS system and set up an account for their child with a password. Please remember this password. If the vaccination clinic needs to access their child’s VAMS account they will not be able to do so without having the password.
On Saturday April 3, the Greenwich Department of Health will post a series of new vaccination clinics in the VAMS system, starting next week.
Anyone who goes to VAMS and looks for Greenwich Dept of Health clinics for next week will not see any, as they will be posted on Saturday.
The Dept of Health Clinic operates 3 days a week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Once a parents sets their child’s account in VAMS they will be able to make a vaccination appointment in any vaccination clinic that operates on the VAMS system and has vaccination appointments available.
The District does not provide vaccinations, all vaccine administration must go through the Greenwich Department of Health, a local Hospital, or an approved medical provider. There is discussion from the State Department of Health that there may be an opportunity for student-specific vaccine clinics, however we will not get additional guidance about that for a few more weeks; we will share information as soon as we have more details.
Vaccine Appointment Information
Students ages 16 and 17 are eligible for the Pfizer vaccine only.
Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are approved for ages 18 and older. You can use covidvaccinefinder.ct.gov to see which locations use which vaccine. The individual hospital systems also display this information on their sites either in a calendar format or when you attempt to schedule. There are many options for scheduling your vaccine, the Town of Greenwich utilizes the VAMS portal as well as Yale New Haven Health.
Once the clinic vaccination appointment is made, another email will be sent to complete the registration process by filling out a health survey. This must be done before going to the clinic to get vaccinated.
Additional information:
- Call Connecticut’s COVID-19 Vaccine Appointment Assist Line: Connecticut’s COVID-19 vaccine appointment assist line is open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., seven days a week. To make an appointment, call 877-918-2224.
- Register with the CT Department of Health to use the VAMS Portal: The VAMS portal will show appointments throughout the state; you can schedule an appointment for the soonest available and then if an earlier appointment appears, you can choose to reschedule. Appointments are added daily and at various times; widening your test site radius beyond Fairfield County is helpful.
- Hartford HealthCare: Hartford HealthCare has multiple locations throughout the state, including large clinics in the Hartford area. To make an appointment using this system, click here.
- Yale-New Haven Health: Yale-New Haven Hospital has multiple locations throughout the state, including large clinics in the New Haven area and one at Brunswick. To make an appointment using this system, click here.
- Stamford Health: Stamford Health is operating two clinics seven days per week at Stamford Hospital and in Harbor Point. To make an appointment using this system, click here.
- Walgreens: Walgreens offers the vaccine at multiple locations; these appointments tend to be added in the mornings around 7 am for the next five days. To make an appointment using this system, click here.
- CVS: CVS offers the vaccine at multiple locations; these appointments tend to be added in the mornings around 6 am for the next three days. To make an appointment using this system, click here.
- Walmart: Walmart offers the vaccine at multiple locations across the state. To make an appointment using this system, click here.
Looking for more information about the vaccine?The CT Department of Health has shared a vast amount of information about the vaccine.
See also:
Unchecked Community Spread of Covid-19 Puts CT Back in “Red Zone”