:strip_exif(true):strip_icc(true):no_upscale(true):quality(65)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gmg/FIDLWO7SFBCGFND235WNZ52GBM.jpg "‘Glitch’ causes some to be rejected with appointments from the Minute Maid Park vaccine megasite")
HOUSTON A so-called ‘glitch’ on Saturday forced Houston’s health officials to turn down appointments with people to be vaccinated at the Minute Maid Park megasite.
Several frustrated people called the KPRC 2 news office to report that after waiting a few hours in line, they were told that the coronavirus vaccine had been depleted at the megacity. A video shared with KPRC 2 showed a worker announcing exactly that, saying that there was a “bug in the system where it duplicated appointments.” The worker can be heard telling people to stay in line so they can reschedule their appointment and that they will be a priority for the next clinic.
In a tweet, Houston Department of Health officials said they had gone through their scheduled appointments and that they had to stop accepting patients because of the amount of people still in line. Officials said staff members take the names of people in the queue who had appointments that need to be rescheduled.
“We will investigate what caused us to go through our scheduled appointments today and make sure they are rectified,” the tweet read. “We apologize for the inconvenience as we all work together to end this pandemic.”
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner tweeted Saturday night that 6,122 people had been vaccinated during the clinic.
The City’s goal is to get these vaccines into people’s arms as quickly as possible and not leave them on the shelf. Today, 6122 have been vaccinated and the number could have been much higher, but for supply. With a mega website, there are challenges, but we’re working on it. st
– Sylvester Turner (@SylvesterTurner) 17 January 2021
People waited patiently in line at the Juice Box on Saturday to get their COVID-19 shot.
Ron Cowel said he was grateful he was able to get the vaccine at the clinic run by the ballpark.
“You have no popcorn, hot dogs or beer, and there’s no one starting the wave,” Cowel said. “But you get your vaccine, and I’m very grateful.”
While some said they waited a few hours in line, Donald Anderson said he was surprised at how fast it was moving.
“I said, ‘Look at all these people,'” Anderson said. “I said, ‘It’s going to take a long time,’ but it moved quickly. “
Houston Mayor Sylvester said the goal was to get several hundred people in and out of the megacity every hour.
Other vaccine clinics were held in the Houston hospital systems on Saturday.
According to Houston Methodist officials, about 4,500 people were vaccinated during their clinic.
Memorial Hermann Hospital also held a vaccination clinic in NRG Park for the third day. Hospital officials said more than 10,000 people had been vaccinated so far.
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