Preregistration now required for COVID vaccines at Tri-Cities fairgrounds

Preregistration is now required at the COVID-19 drive-thru vaccination clinic at the Benton County Fairgrounds in Kennewick.

Go to prepmod.doh.wa.gov to preregister. Anyone who does not have internet access can preregister by calling 800-525-0127.

After a day of back and forth between state and local officials and confusion for those who had appointments, the change was announced Monday evening.

Those who preregistered for Tuesday morning at the site and were given an appointment time before 2 p.m. will be served Tuesday. Those who have an appointment after 2 p.m. Tuesday will receive a vaccine on Wednesday because appointments for Tuesday were overbooked.

Initially, local organizers said the site would be first come, first serve.

But Monday morning the Washington state Department of Health posted a link to a preregistration site, saying that starting Tuesday participants would be required to preregister.

After hundreds of people rushed to sign up and were given appointments, officials at the site said that they planned to continue a first come, first serve system rather than using the preregistration system.

The Benton Franklin Health District said that those working the site were not able to access information on who had made appointments through the Department of Health site.

“We apologize for any inconvenience in this process,” said Ben Shearer with the Southeast Washington Incident Management Team, which is operating the Washington state Department of Health site, in a news release Monday night.

The state has mandated that vaccination at the Tri-Cities fairgrounds is by preregistration only, and the incident management team is working with the state on using the state site for scheduling future appointments, he said.

But participants still will need to be prepared for a long wait and are encouraged to bring blankets, food, bottled water and books, he said. Portable bathrooms are on site.

Participants also must confirm eligibility for the vaccine at FindYourPhaseWA.org. Printing off the certificate of eligibility or taking a screen shot is recommended.

Currently, vaccines are only being given to people 65 or older and people 50 and older living in multigenerational households. Health care employees and staff and residents of long-term care facilities for the elderly also are eligible.

This story was originally published January 25, 2021 at 10:06 PM.