ROANOKE, Va. – The Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts are begging you to answer your phone.
Up to 50 percent of calls to make vaccine appointments have gone unanswered and local health officials don’t want people to miss out.
The districts have been making calls to people who don’t have email or internet to set up vaccine appointments, but staffing shortages have made it tough.
Recently, the districts recruited a sizeable number of volunteers to reach out to those folks. However, people aren’t picking up the phone worried it might be a spam call.
“If your phone is set to silence unknown numbers or junk callers, you might be missing a call from us,” said Christie Wills, the communications officer for the health district.
Wills said you should never pay any money to put your name on a priority list or pay for a vaccine.
VDH may ask for your name, address, date of birth and some health information over the phone, but they’ll never ask for a credit card or social security number.