Finally. After weeks and weeks of people tearing their hair out trying to get a vaccine appointment through the City and County and trying to figure out their two different registration processes, the City and County of El Paso leaders have decided to work together. Friday morning the mayor and County Judge held a news conference to announce the partnership.

City Manager Tommy Gonzalez said the work done by both the City and the County through training programs have reduced waiting times at testing and vaccine sites. Gonzalez also said that today’s announcement will show state and federal officials that the City and County are "ramping up our coordination and communication efforts as a community to be able to put more shots in arms quicker and more efficiently.”

Person receiving a vaccine
Jeffrey Hamilton
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UMC President and CEO Jacob Cintron said a working partnership between the City and County on other issues pre-COVID pandemic have always been successful and that data collection and sharing of the vaccination process will help form a centralized pool of vaccination recipients and get people vaccinated more quickly.

The City/County centralization process won't happen immediately. UMC will continue to have online registration a few more times until the process is finalized, but once the mechanism to share data from the City’s list is ready to go, UMC will no longer hold online registration. UMC will instead work with the City of El Paso to administer vaccines to people on the comprehensive pre-registration list.

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The combined City/County registration process is still being worked on and when it's completed, UMC will request a specified number of registrants from the City’s pre-registration list. If you're on the list you will then be contacted by UMC to get your vaccine scheduled and get your 1st and 2nd doses at the County Coliseum site. The City will continue to administer 1st and 2nd doses at one of the three City vaccine sites at George Perry, High Ridge and the Convention Center.

If you need more information about the way this will all work, or for data, testing and other COVID-19 information, go to EPStrong.org.

LOOK: Answers to 30 common COVID-19 vaccine questions

While much is still unknown about the coronavirus and the future, what is known is that the currently available vaccines have gone through all three trial phases and are safe and effective. It will be necessary for as many Americans as possible to be vaccinated in order to finally return to some level of pre-pandemic normalcy, and hopefully these 30 answers provided here will help readers get vaccinated as soon they are able.

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