On Tuesday, Pikeville Medical Center (PMC) unveiled a new website that will enable a segment of the population in the 1B phase to register for their COVID-19 vaccination. Anyone 70 years old and over can secure his or her reservation for the vaccine by visiting www.pmcvaccine.com.
“In Pike County alone, there are an estimated 10,000 residents 70 and over, placing them in the 1B phase of the vaccination roll out,” explained PMC Vice President of the Board of Directors and CEO Donovan Blackburn. “This is a segment of our population who need to be protected, and we are offering this website to enable them to get registered as quickly as possible. This is another huge step for or region in our fight against COVID-19”
PMC is working to vaccinate both employees and all other qualifying 1A providers from Pike and surrounding counties and will continue to do so through the remainder of this week. As of Tuesday, January 5th, Blackburn said just over 60% of PMC employees had chosen to receive the first injection of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Like everyone else, I, too, want to visit with my family again and find some sense of normalcy,” said Dr. John Fleming, Medical Director of PMC’s Emergency Department. “However, in order to do that, we need to be vaccinated.”
Blackburn explained that vaccinations for the 70 and over population will begin as soon as the next shipment of vaccines arrive at Pikeville Medical Center, which he adds could be as early as next week.
“We encourage anyone in this category who wishes to be vaccinated to visit the website and register. When vaccines arrive, someone from our staff will call, gather the necessary information, and give you an appointment time,” said Blackburn. “We will order the vaccine weekly through the State’s system based on the projected demand created from the requests on www.pmcvaccine.com.”
Anyone 70 and over who lives in PMC’s seven county service area consisting of Pike, Floyd, Knott, Letcher, Magoffin, Martin, and Johnson counties is encouraged to visit the new website and register. Scheduling for this group will be on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Once available, vaccines for this group will be administered via a drive-thru method and will be given behind the former PMC Leonard Lawson Cancer Center location in Pikeville.