D.C. will begin administering vaccines to homebound residents at their homes on April 26, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Monday.

Appointments for homebound residents will be booked through the DC Health call center at 1-855-363-0333. Any homebound resident, regardless of age, is eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine appointment.

The launch of the homebound program comes after D.C. councilmembers repeatedly requested such a program during weekly calls with Bowser’s administration. (Those calls, which were an opportunity for councilmembers to ask the mayor about her COVID-19 response, have since been nixed.) For several weeks, DC Health officials responded that the city was looking at ways to reach homebound residents with the vaccine.

The city was prepped to begin accepting registrations for homebound appointments late last week, but on Wednesday, DC Health director LaQuandra Nesbitt said the ongoing pause of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine delayed the launch.

During a press conference on Monday, Nesbitt appeared to walk back that statement, saying that “last week, the program was not live because the program wasn’t ready to go live.” If the pause on the use of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine is not lifted before next Monday, Nesbitt said, the city will be prepared to administer the Moderna vaccine to homebound residents. 

“We had a discussion where our preference for any home visiting program that uses vaccines would be more efficiently executed or implemented with a one-dose vaccine, however it doesn’t preclude us from being able to use two-dose vaccines out in the community,” Nesbitt said.

According to Nesbitt, DC Health has already identified individuals for homebound appointments through partnerships with various home health and government agencies, and encouraged anyone who needs a vaccine at home to register for an appointment this week, saying that the program would work most efficiently based on the sign-up system. But she cautioned that administration could take longer and proper transportation of the doses could be more complicated if only a few residents are booked for appointments in different neighborhoods across the city.

DC Health did not immediately return DCist/WAMU’s request for comment on the logistics of the program.

“We’re not going to go out in the field with only two people registered, Nesbitt said Monday. “So amplifying his program, making sure people call in is going to be extremely beneficial.”

Meanwhile, D.C. is still looking at other ways to boost vaccine rates for seniors.

While all D.C.  residents are now eligible for a vaccine through DC Health’s registration system, Bowser noted on Monday that there are still thousands of residents who are not yet connected with the city’s pre-registration portal. Only about half of the city’s seniors have been fully vaccinated. On Monday, D.C. opened several walk-up sites for residents 65 and over that do not require an appointment.

DC Health is still struggling, especially, to reach seniors in Wards 7 and 8; both wards have seen far lower vaccination rates than wealthier, whiter wards since the District began distributing vaccines. Bowser announced a door-knocking event in Ward 8 on May 1 to boost outreach and help residents register for their vaccine. People can sign-up to volunteer here.