COVID-19 Vaccine: What You Need To Know From 211 Eastern Oklahoma

There are a lot of questions that surround COVID-19 vaccines and keeping up with all the questions statewide is a huge challenge. 211 Eastern Oklahoma said the number of calls it's getting is drastically increasing.

The Oklahoma State Department of Health and other agencies are urging people to call 211 for help registering for a vaccine appointment.

The service usually helps Oklahomans in 37 counties navigate through several different issues, such as housing, food, utility, or rent assistance.

211 Eastern Oklahoma Executive Director Ashlie Casey said they had nearly 10,000 calls on Friday.

She says on a typical day before the pandemic, about 600 to 700 Oklahomans would call them. In March, they were getting around 2,000 calls.

Casey said they've had to hire more staff to handle all of those calls. She said they are working to make sure you get your questions answered as quickly as possible.

"The amount of information that's coming in, and the frequency of information that's coming in, is where we're trying to fine tune our processes. But, we've never done this before, we've never issued a statewide vaccine like this and been a part of it, so we're trying to respond as best we can, but it is fluid," Casey said.

You can find more resources here.

Click here for more information about the COVID-19 vaccine.

For appointment information from 211, click here.