Getting an appointment: Key things to know

■ Georgia earlier this month expanded from Phase 1a+ of its distribution plan for COVID-19 vaccines to include anyone age 55 and older and anyone who has a medical condition that is deemed high risk by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On Thursday, the pool will expand to anyone 16 and older.

■ If you are eligible, and the majority of Georgia adults now are, you may want to look for appointments in more than one county, especially if you live in metro Atlanta. Any Georgia resident can receive a vaccine at any available site in the state.

For state and county vaccination appointments, check these two websites first:

■ Georgia Department of Public Health: gta-vras. powerappsportals.us

■ My Vaccine Georgia, (myvaccinegeorgia.com), operated by the Georgia Department of Emergency Management.

■ If you have a doctor or doctor group that you normally see for annual checkups, check its website; some are now offering vaccination appointments to more patients.

■ The massive COVID-19 vaccination site at Mercedesbenz Stadium is open for appointments and has started administering the vaccine. The site will have the capacity to administer 6,000 vaccines a day, seven days a week. They will include evening appointments as late as 10 p.m. two nights a week.

■ Please be considerate:

If you sign up for more than one appointment, cancel any that you are not going to use. Otherwise, you might keep someone else from getting an appointment or cause a dose to go to waste.

■ Crowd sourcing: Because the process is potentially confusing, unofficial groups and individuals are using Facebook and other social media to help people find appointments. One example is the Georgia Vaccine Hunters Facebook group, which numbers more than 7,000 members.