Some pharmacies in D.C. have quietly started allowing residents to book COVID-19 vaccine appointments directly on their websites — but the city never publicized the opportunity, despite high unmet demand for vaccines across the city.

Walgreens pharmacies in the District have been offering vaccine appointments since mid-March. Kalorama Pharmacy in Adams Morgan also had available appointments on its website last week, according to reports on Twitter. (No more appointments were available for eligible residents at either pharmacy as of Monday afternoon). Both pharmacies are part of a federal partnership that sends them doses directly — a program that is expected to scale up rapidly across the country as vaccine supply increases.

D.C. officials say residents can likely expect more local pharmacies and other providers to start offering vaccine appointments in the coming weeks. Some will be available for booking outside of the city’s centralized pre-registration system for vaccine appointments.

But the city hasn’t highlighted these pharmacies as an option for getting vaccinated, even as residents’ demand for a shot has driven them to seek one outside of city limits. Last Wednesday, DC Health sent an email to people who had pre-registered for a vaccine appointment in D.C. as of that day — over 190,000 individuals — and made no mention of opportunities to book appointments through the local pharmacies. In a section of the email titled “Other ways to book an appointment,” the department advertised opportunities with hospitals and CVS pharmacies, which are vaccinating school staff, child care workers, health care workers, and seniors (but not other eligible D.C. residents).

Residents were largely left to find out about the pharmacy appointments through word of mouth. Conversations (and confusion) about the available pharmacy doses played out throughout last week on social media.

“Walgreens is now vaccinating eligible DC residents. Appointments are booked directly, not through the [city’s] portal,” tweeted an account called DC COVID Watch, which has been following D.C.’s coronavirus response throughout the pandemic. “Are Mayor Bowser and DC Health aware of this? If so, why haven’t they shared this info w/ the rest of us?”

D.C. health officials have not directly answered questions about why they did not publicize the pharmacy vaccination opportunities. It’s not clear if they knew about the doses, which were provided to the pharmacies directly by the federal government through a federal vaccine partnership. When asked at a press conference Monday, DC Health Director LaQuandra Nesbitt did not provide a full list of pharmacies currently offering the vaccine in the District.

Nesbitt said that her agency prefers for pharmacies to use the city’s pre-registration system as a way of prioritizing residents who are most vulnerable to the virus, but they’ve acknowledged some pharmacies will book appointments directly.

“The theory is that no one will use their own system without consultation with DC Health,” said DC Health Director LaQuandra Nesbitt at a press conference on Monday. But, Nesbitt added, it’s “not impossible” that federal pharmacy locations activated and began vaccinating residents outside of D.C.’s portal without first connecting with DC Health.

D.C. is not the only local jurisdiction where vaccinations at certain pharmacies began without much formal communication. In February, Arlington County officials said they found out through a “third party” — not the state or federal government — that pharmacies had vaccines available for seniors.

This new availability at pharmacies in D.C. comes as the city had finally managed to smooth out its own vaccination signup process, which was plagued by a series of technical issues as residents raced to make appointments on a first-come, first-serve basis. Critics of the system pointed out that it privileged the most tech savvy and well-resourced residents and contributed to persistent racial disparities in D.C.’s vaccine rollout.

The city recently created a pre-registration process that allows residents to sign up at their own pace and then doles out vaccine appointments according to a formula that prioritizes residents based on their age, zip code, medical conditions, and jobs. By all accounts, the process appeared to be working well: it reduced confusion and made the experience of booking an appointment less frantic and fraught with technical glitches.

It’s likely that system will soon be working in tandem with a slew of pharmacies and other medical providers booking directly on their sites. Nesbitt said on Monday that residents can expect shots to become available at a broader array of providers.

“We expect over time as vaccine supply increases that we will have more pharmacies, more private physicians offices, more urgent cares that have doses of vaccine available,” adding that much of this availability may not happen until May. Some providers, Nesbitt said, might choose to use their own booking systems if their technology does not work well with the city’s.

Kathleen Jaeger, an official at the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, also recently told Washington City Paper that pharmacies will take on a more prominent role in booking and administering the vaccine as supply rapidly increases in D.C. and around the country.

In D.C., 12.3% of residents have been fully vaccinated and 23% of residents have been partially vaccinated. (The city also has the added challenge of a large percentage of essential workers who live in Maryland and Virginia but are eligible to be vaccinated in the District because of their jobs.)

D.C. officials have repeatedly emphasized that supply remains a constraint in the city’s rollout, which made the situations at the pharmacy chains all the more surprising. DC Health reports that the city has administered 81.4% of the doses it has received, above the national average of 77%. (The city has disputed a lower efficiency number that has been referenced in national trackers because they do not account for the large numbers of doses distributed directly to federal agencies, over which the local health department has no control.)

In the meantime, upwards of 100,000 residents remain on the District’s pre-registration list — and many are likely unaware that they currently have other options for scheduling a vaccine outside of the DC Health portal. D.C. Councilmembers are drawing attention to the new FEMA-supported vaccination site in Greenbelt, Maryland, that’s opening on Wednesday. While D.C. was denied such a site — that would use federal doses to vaccinate thousands a day, instead of pulling from D.C.’s allotment — Maryland is now allowing D.C. residents ages 16 and older to register for a shot at the Greenbelt location. In D.C, all residents over age 16 won’t be eligible for a vaccine until May 1.

Officials also announced Monday that D.C. would be opening a new high-capacity vaccination site at Arena Stage, where it will send residents who are pre-registered through DC Health’s centralized system.

As residents increasingly get vaccinated outside the city’s pre-registration system — including traveling out of state to do so — D.C. officials are encouraging residents to remove their names from the list. On Friday, At-large Councilmember Elissa Silverman issued a plea on Twitter for residents to do so.

“If you don’t remove your name after being vaccinated outside of the system, it’ll delay getting invites out to other people who need a shot,” explained Sam Rosen-Amy, her chief of staff. “Invites will keep going to you after you’ve already been vaccinated, and there’s a 48 hour delay before an appointment is reallocated.”

Colleen Grablick contributed reporting. 

This story has been updated to add additional information about pharmacy vaccinations in Virginia.