FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. (WDVM) — On Friday, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) announced the launch of a statewide COVID-19 vaccine pre-registration system, set to open next Tuesday. As of 5 p.m. Friday, all local health department pre-registration forms closed for the weekend, except for Fairfax County’s, to allow VDH time to upload each locality’s pre-registration list.

Since COVID-19 vaccines rolled out, each county in the Commonwealth has been tasked to develop its own registration form to keep those who are eligible for the vaccine in line. Now, the statewide system will consolidate all data into one place, ensuring no one will lose their place in line, but it will take a few days to load the information into the database, preventing many Virginians from registering this weekend.

“The reason for the downtime is to integrate the data stream so that no one who has registered previously will lose their place in line,” said VDH state vaccine coordinator Dr. Danny Avula.

Fairfax County residents can still register throughout the weekend because the county has decided to keep its own health system and not participate in the state’s new program.

“The Fairfax Health Department is not on the jurisdiction of the state, they’re one of the ones that are independent, integrated into their local government,” stated Dr. Avula.

In a statement, Fairfax County Board Chairman Jeffrey McKay said, “We invested a lot of resources into our registration system and worked out the kinks to ensure we continue to process more people than any other health district in the state. At this point, I am glad we can maintain our system that residents are familiar with to cut down on confusion. We will continue to have conversations with the state about registration as the vaccine process rolls out.”

VDH said they spoke with the county and thinks they’ll eventually hop on to the state’s system but as of now all Fairfax residents should still register through Fairfax Health.

Also on Friday, Fairfax County released a new vaccine data dashboard that can be found here. In a statement, Chairman McKay said, “We are also excited to have our vaccine dashboard launched today that lets you confirm your registration status and see the progress of Fairfax County’s vaccination efforts in a push for improved transparency and communication.”

More information about VDH’s new state pre-registration system will be discussed during Governor Northam’s press conference next week.