MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – As the eligibility for COVID-19 vaccines are increasing in the Mountain State, more people are scheduling appointments. However, some are scheduling multiple appointments at different locations, to secure their spot, and forgetting to cancel their extra ones.

“We’re seeing only about 35% of West Virginia citizens have received that first dose of the vaccine, so we still know there’s a large majority of folks that are out there that we would like to get vaccinated,” Dr. Todd Karpinski, Chief Pharmacy Officer said. “We would only see about a half of percent of no show rates which is very very low. This week we’ve seen up to a 10% no show rate.”

Since more people haven’t been showing up — the WVU Medicine clinic has adapted a way to not waste the extras doses.

“If at the end of the day we do have some extra dose left over we have a waiting list that we have established that we will then call people and then ask them to come within the next 30 minutes to get a vaccine,” Karpinski said.

WVU medicine wants people to make sure they cancel their extra appointments so that others get the opportunity to sign up.

“It is our hope that we start seeing more people wanting to get the vaccine and kind of changing they’re mind now when they may have not wanted the vaccine originally,” Karpinski said.

WVU Medicine has started offering later hours and Saturday appointments to try and encourage more people to become vaccinated.

Appointments can be found on their website here.