Chapel Hill residents who want to get the COVID-19 vaccine now have a new platform to find appointments — a new Twitter account created by UNC Health.

The new account (@uncstandbycovi1) was created to ensure that unused doses of the vaccine find a host at the end of the day. UNC Health confirmed the validity of the Twitter account to Chapelboro in a statement.

“We hope this provides a way to access end of day doses that people will find easy,” said Dr. David Wohl, a UNC School of Medicine infectious disease physician who helps run the Friday Center vaccination site. “We are getting more doses, which is terrific.”

UNC Health clarified that the Twitter account is not a waitlist. Residents can follow the account to receive information on when UNC Health anticipates having end-of-day doses.

People wishing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine have a limited window to make appointments to get available doses and must be within 20 minutes of the Friday Center during the evening hours. Anyone can receive an end of the day vaccine dose, no matter which vaccination group they are in.

Following the Twitter account does not guarantee a dose. UNC Health will send out a follow-up tweet if all of the available doses will be used by the end of the day. In general, no more than 10 people are asked to go to the Friday Center at the end of the day for available doses.

This week, UNC Health received around 16,400 vaccine doses — all Pfizer and Moderna. According to UNC Health, that’s the highest total in several weeks, and up from 13,000 last week.

Featured image via the Chatham County Public Health Department

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