Onondaga County, Kinney Drugs partner to preregister seniors for vaccine doses

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Onondaga County is partnering with Kinney Drugs for an initiative called ONList to preregister senior citizens on a waiting list for their COVID-19 vaccinations.

All the area vaccination points-of-distribution (PODs) will use ONList to select people via a lottery for appointments each week as they get new doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

“… so our seniors don’t have to go and compete for new slots every time where there’s new appointments made available because some of our seniors just don’t have the capacity with the technology, or they’re not familiar with the technology,” Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said. “So we think this is good.”

Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon provided the information in a Wednesday afternoon update on the county’s Facebook page.

The link for ONList to get preregistered will be live on Thursday on the websites of Onondaga County and Kinney Drugs as well, McMahon noted.

“This will be a preregistration list [of] up to 10,000 people and each week, there will be a random selection on who gets the appointments,” said McMahon. “This is a tool that we think will be successful.”

New clinics, appointments

Onondaga County has also scheduled a clinic for the 1(b) category of people needing vaccinated. The clinic is set for Friday and the link to register will be on the Onondaga County web page on Thursday beginning at 12 p.m.

The groups in phase 1(b) that are now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine include people age 65 and older, first responders, corrections officers, teachers and other school staff, in-person college instructors, child-care workers, public facing grocery-store workers, transit workers, and individuals living and working in homeless shelters, per the website of Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“I believe there will be roughly around 900 appointments available for vaccinations at the Oncenter on Friday,” said McMahon.

In addition, Onondaga County is partnering with Kinney Drugs for a clinic on Sunday at the Oncenter. Kinney Drugs on Thursday will have a link on its website for new appointments for the Sunday clinic.

“These are new appointments in the community this week … Again, if you have an existing appointment, keep your existing appointment. That means somebody has vaccine for you,” the county executive noted.

McMahon also addressed those who may be thinking about their second vaccine dose. If they got their first dose at the War Memorial, the second dose will be administered at the Oncenter (the county had to move the site with the Syracuse Crunch preparing for their season at the War Memorial).

“When will you get a second shot? You will get a second shot when you get an email from COVID vaccinations. It will then have a link there for you to preregister. This will most likely be about five days before your second shot is due. Second shots for Moderna are 28 to 42 days, but we’re trying to get you on that 28th day,” said McMahon.

He went to say that “for example and for context,” Onondaga County on Wednesday administered second-dose shots at the Oncenter for people who got their first shot on Dec. 30.

“If you received your first shot at the [State] Fairgrounds, go back to the Fairgrounds for your second shot. If you received your first shot at Kinney [Drugs], you go to Kinney for the second shot,” McMahon noted in his Facebook remarks.