Residents encouraged to sign-up for notification alerts for when those vaccines do come in

Residents encouraged to sign-up for notification alerts for when those vaccines do come in Main Photo

28 Jan 2021


news, Guadalupe County, Covid19

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today

Cindy Aguirre

(Seguin) — Although the county remains on standby, Guadalupe County officials says it is still working to prepare residents for when the COVID-19 vaccines do become available.

Patrick Pinder, Guadalupe County emergency management officer, says the first step will be for residents to sign up for the county’s Reverse 9-1-1 system. Pinder says by signing up for this alert, it will provide them with immediate news on any vaccination supply that arrives.

“You can go to the county webpage. Go to the emergency management section and on the left hand column, go all the way down, it’s the second from the bottom and you sign up for that. What that does is it provides your information. You put in however you want to be notified, phone call, email, text and what we are going to do is when we find out when we are going to have a vaccine allocation, we are going to notify people through that system. We can basically draw a circle on the map – you know whether that’s going to be in Seguin or that’s going to be in Schertz or if that’s going to be in Cibolo. We can go so far out and notify those people who are going to be in that community first. So, we can say if you are registered in that system, we are going to notify you. You will also be notified about any other event that goes on. If there is a tornado, if there is a flood, if there is a missing person, if the sheriff’s office or any local PD are out in the area, that’s the same system they use to notify you, so it helps to stay informed and we are just going to use that because it’s free. It’s paid for by AACOG so we are going to make sure we are using all of our resources,” said Pinder.

Again, the sign-up for the Reverse Everbridge 9-1-1 system is only for alerts and shouldn’t be mistaken for any official type of registration for the vaccine.

Pinder says whether it’s the reverse 9-1-1 system or other outlets, the county is going to make sure all available communication resources are made available to them.

“There was an email set up last week. It’s COVID19@co.guadalupe.tx.us <mailto:COVID19@co.guadalupe.tx.us>. If anybody has any questions, email us at the email address. We are going to put that on our social media press release that way people can ask us questions. They can email us information – anything they want to talk to us about. We are going to field those emails through that and then we’ll respond back to those folks or we are asking people to just check their preferred media outlets. Last week, the PIOs (public information officers) all over the county had that information, school districts, city officials, county officials, Facebook, the radio station, everybody had it, the newspaper so we want to make sure that we are touching every person in the county to make sure they are staying informed,” said Pinder.
Once there is information about vaccinations, media outlets such as Seguin Radio KWED and the Seguin Daily News will also work closely with county leaders in helping to better define the details behind that process — a process that will be required to successfully administer the vaccinations throughout the community.

Guadalupe County Judge Kyle Kutscher says although it’s been a bit of a challenge, the county is doing all that it can to stay  prepared for  this vaccine rollout.

“We are on a holding partner. It is a waiting game. I appreciate everybody’s patience. I understand it is frustrating but we are pushing every avenue that we possibly can and will continue to work on those plans so we are as prepared as possible,” said Kutscher.
Again, he says staying informed these next few weeks and even months will be important for everybody. He says if folks have not yet registered for the Reverse 911 alert system then he encourages them to do so as soon as possible.

The link to sign up for the reverse 9-1-1 system  can be found on the county’s website at co.guadalupe.tx.us under the county emergency management tab. Residents may also email their questions to covid19@co.guadalupe.tx.us.

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