City closes wait list temporarily as vaccine is shifted to vulnerable
Over 70,000 have called for appointment already through the Area Agency on Aging
The city temporarily closed its senior wait list for a COVID-19 vaccine Friday after more than 70,000 people called to enroll, and will focus its latest shipment of 9,000 doses on the most vulnerable.
That meant the Houston Health Department did not open new appointments Friday, as it has in past weeks.
Instead, it will direct about 5,300 of the doses toward the wait list, which is operated by the Harris County Area Agency on Aging. Another 2,400 will go to providers in vulnerable communities, and 1,300 are reserved for previously booked appointments, the department announced.
“We know it is important to vaccinate the people who are the most vulnerable, and they should be among the first to get shots, especially when supply is scarce,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said. “The Houston Health Department’s distribution plan for next week focuses on those with a higher risk for illness and death and people living in vulnerable communities.”
The doses headed to vulnerable communities will go to Walgreens locations on Wallisville Road and Airline Drive, along with Hope Clinic and Ibn Sina, who will offer the shots to their existing clients, according to the Health Department.
City officials also said they are working to schedule second doses for those who already have re
ceived their first shot. Next week, it plans to schedule shots for people who received their first dose Dec. 31, Jan. 4 or Jan. 5 at the George R. Brown Convention Center; from other Health Department clinics between Jan. 3 and Jan. 8; and at Minute Maid Park on Jan. 9.
More information on that schedule is available on the city’s website.
Many residents have been anxious about those appointments, as their 28day windows approach and they do not hear from the city. Health officials are asking residents not to inquire about those appointments unless they are within 48 hours of the 28-day window
and have not heard anything.
The city cited a new guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control that says the second dose should be administered as close as possible to 28 days after the first shot, but it can be given up to 42 days later.
Still, officials said people should be able to get their second doses on time.
“We anticipate second dose appointments being offered within the 28-day window,” said Scott Packard, communications director for the health department.
As of Friday morning, the city has given 34,503 Moderna shots. About 10,000 of those were distributed at a Minute Maid Park mega site the city launched on two Saturdays
and since has discontinued.
It now is offering shots at Bayou City Event Center, Delmar Stadium, the convention center, and at its Northside, La Nueva Casa de Amigos, Sharpstown and Sunnyside health centers, along with the JW Peavy Senior Center and the Acres Homes, Hiram Clarke, and Magnolia multiservice centers.
Appointments are required for all vaccinations and no new slots currently are available.
Residents can register for notifications about new appointments by subscribing to the HoustonRecovers option at AlertHouston. The city said it will contact and screen people who left a message to get on the Area Agency on Aging’s wait-list in coming days. It emphasized those people do not
need to call back.
Harris County’s separate wait list for the vaccine is available on its website. The site ran into technical troubles when it launched Tuesday, but more than 165,000 people have signed up already.
Anyone can get on that waiting list, though right now vaccines are limited to certain front-line workers, people 65 and over and those with certain health conditions.
Those include cancer; chronic kidney disease; COPD; conditions like heart failure, coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathies; solid organ transplantation; obesity; pregnancy; sickle cell disease and Type 2 diabetes mellitus.