Vaccine Tracker FAQs
What is the vaccine incentive program?
Under this incentive program, the County will pay a $1000 incentive bonus to employees who:
(1) are fully vaccinated for COVID-19, or will be fully vaccinated by November 30, 2021;
and
(2) complete a required form and upload a record documenting the COVID-19 vaccination to a secure vaccine tracker web portal.
Employees who have already been vaccinated for COVID-19 should submit the form and documentation no later than November 30, 2021. Employees who have been vaccinated, but do not provide the requested information by November 30, 2021, will not receive the bonus payment.
Who is eligible for the vaccination incentive program?
All County employees, regardless of branch of government, are eligible for the program. Contractual and temp/seasonal employees who have worked 1,000 hours in the 2021 calendar year from Jan 1 - November 30, 2021, and are on payroll as of November 30, 2021, may also participate in the incentive program.
If you are unsure of your eligibility, please contact your department Personnel Liaison or the Office of Personnel at [email protected]
I read that Anne Arundel County Departments are receiving invitations to register for vaccine tracking before September 24th, but I have not received any notice.
All departments except those listed below should have received invitations to county email addresses to register for vaccine tracking. The departments listed below will receive the invitations to register for vaccine tracking starting the week of September 13, 2021.
- Anne Arundel County Public Libraries
- Anne Arundel Workforce Development
- Arundel Community Development Services
- Board of Elections
- Circuit Court
- Department of Social Services
- Health Department
- Legislative Branch
- Partnership for Children, Youth and Families
- Police Department
- Recreation and Parks
- Soil Conservation
- Employees without @AACO.ORG email address / Personal Email Only
NOTE - if you do not have an @AACO.ORG email address, please contact your Department Personnel Liaison to ensure we have a personal email address on file for you.
If you are an employee of a department that is not listed above, have an @AACO.ORG email address, and have not received an invitation, please send an email to [email protected] - please include your County email address, department, and employee number.
How do I access the vaccine tracker and upload my documentation?
You should have received an email from "[email protected]" with a link to the secure web portal (Apricot). To upload your information, please follow these instructions:
In response to clicking on the link in the email, you should:
(1) Receive a Connect welcome email, (Connect is the product name that the company Apricot/Social Solutions uses).
(2) Click on the link to go to Connect where you will be prompted to set a password and login.
(3) Please note that you have to create the original password (and we recommend that you bookmark the link - should you need to come back).
(4) Upon login, you will see two forms:
Instructions- gives instructions on how to fill out the forms (Optional- no action required)
i. This “form” will only display the instructions for the second form
ii. The checkbox is to confirm you've read instructions. this is not a mandatory field
Vaccine Verification Form
i. Will ask you to enter the following information: employee ID, email, phone number
ii. Will also allow you to answer and upload vaccine-related questions
iii. Exit the screen by hitting "SAVE"
I am receiving an error when I use my County email and password. What should I do?
- Because Apricot does not use your County log-in credentials, you are being invited to create a NEW PASSWORD. Please remember this password for future access.
- Check your spam and all email folders for an email from “Covid Tracking” You should follow the link in the email you received as this identifies you. If you cannot find the email or did not receive an email, please follow the instructions below to “reset password.”
- If you have created a password and are having issues logging back in, please follow the steps to change your password:
- Go to https://annearundelcounty.socialsolutionsportal.com
- Click on the “Forgot My Password” link.
- Next screen, enter your County email address and click on the “Reset” link.
- An email will be sent to your County email to create a new password.
If you continue to have issues, please send an email to [email protected] with the subject line “Password Error.” Please include your County email address, department, and employee ID number.
Is there a deadline to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination status to receive the $1,000 incentive bonus?
Employees have until November 30, 2021, to provide documentation via the Apricot Secure Site that they have received the COVID-19 vaccine(s) in order to be eligible for the incentive bonus.
The invitation email for the vaccine tracking identifies "Anne Arundel County Department of A&D" as the entity that has granted access to this website. This is an abbreviation. Please clarify the full name of the County Department in question, which seems to be "Aging and Disabilities".
This title is an error that slipped through after testing. It has been corrected. The email is from Anne Arundel County, not the Aging and Disabilities department specifically.
What departments have access to this information? I would have presumed the Department of Health, but does the Office of Personnel have access to this information?
There are select individuals within Personnel and OIT that have access to this information. The Department of Health does not have access to this info other than corporate reports which do not contain personal data about those registered with this site.
Is this information going to be shared with any entities external to Anne Arundel County?
The data is not shared with any external entities, other than Social Solutions which is a cloud based data hosting company.
This does not appear to be a County-based URL, but rather a private third-party entity. That entity has been identified as Social Solutions. Who is this entity and how is the County affiliated with this entity?
Social Solutions is a form-based entity that captures data and gives ease of use dashboard reporting and portal access tools. We are in the process of using them for a number of purposes across several departments.
What is the length of storage for this data?
The data is stored until Anne Arundel County deletes the information or the contract with Social Solutions is terminated.
Is this data encrypted or otherwise protected in accordance with appropriate industry standards?
The data is encrypted at rest and in transmission.
Has the Office of Information Technology vetted this website?
OIT has vetted and selected the use of this product in collaboration with the Office of Personnel.
In the event that this website is breached or the data otherwise gathered by another party, what recourse is there to County employees who shared data to this website?
Employees would have the same recourse they have with any data breach. Nothing is abnormal or special about this site.
It appears that this entity offers a number of potential services and uses for the data they gather. What are the other potential uses of this data?
All services related to this data are directly correlated to identifying vaccine status, in order to receive bonus incentive payments. We may also entertain a COVID testing status later in the year. That is yet to be determined.
Is a vaccine status covered under HIPAA guidelines?
Vaccine status is not covered by HIPAA as are some other medical data. The status data does have PII information, e.g. Name and birth date, and as such is being handled accordingly.
What is Apricot?
Apricot is a cloud-based case management solution designed specifically for nonprofits to manage donations, volunteers, and events. It helps to streamline data collection and reporting for non-profit organizations and allows them to focus on client management and social service outcomes.
