Waiting for vaccines no more
Walk-in sites for COVID-19 shots on the rise in Houston
Walk-in COVID-19 vaccine clinics are now all the rage in Houston, as larger allocations and dwindling demand change the scarcity-fueled dynamic of the past several months.
“Now, there is more supply than there is demand,” said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo during a Monday afternoon news conference at NRG Park. “That means we have more vaccines than we have people willing to get them.”
As of Monday, 44 percent of Texans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. In Texas, vaccine administration is beginning to plateau at 250,000 doses per day, while vaccine manufacturers produce more doses a week, with 14.5 million shipped nationwide every week
as of mid-April.
Harris County’s vaccine site, NRG Park, has abandoned the waitlist system that frustrated residents who found it difficult to schedule a time slot in advance. While the site, run jointly by the county and the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, still recommends scheduling an appointment ahead of time to guarantee a dose, anyone age 16 or older can arrive on foot or by car during operating hours for a shot.
In addition, St. Luke’s Health
is operating a walk-in clinic at Texas Southern University this week. Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center offers walk-up vaccines for veterans, caregivers and spouses.
At Texas Southern University on Monday morning, a trickle of Houston residents came in for their shots, although many were receiving second doses. St. Luke’s Health announced Friday that it would start walk-in vaccinations to expand vaccine access, registering people on-site.
The Texas Southern site was the first place to notify Clinton Metu, who lives in the Galleria, that there were vaccines available. Metu returned Monday morning for his second shot, eager to fill out his vaccination card with the date he was administered the next dose of Pfizer vaccine.
Metu decided to get vaccinated for two reasons. The altruistic one was about curbing the exponential growth of the pandemic. “I feel like I’m contributing to a
greater cause,” Metu said.
The “selfish” one, he said, was being able to travel again. Once past the 14-day post after his second dose, he plans to book a trip abroad — wherever U.S. travelers are accepted.
In February, when local officials and hospital executives opened the Texas Southern clinic, lines snaked around the building as rumors swirled about whether people could enter without appointments. Some waited more than an hour for their Pfizer shots, driving from as far as The Woodlands for a vaccine.
In the first two days of the clinic’s opening, 1,200 people filed in for dose one of the vaccine. On Monday, the first day of walk-in vaccinations, clinicians administered 360 doses to both first and second-dose recipients by 4 p.m.
For people receiving their doses at the St. Luke’s clinic Monday morning, the longest part of the process was the 15-minute wait after the jab. The white tents outside the Nabrit Science Building sheltered no one; the few who walked up to the glass doors for their vaccines passed through the corridors between the temperature screening and staff handling paperwork in mere seconds.
When Hagar Cohen and her father, Guy Cohen, came in for her first Pfizer dose at the end of March, the clinic had a steady stream of vaccine recipients but was not crowded. Upon their return Monday, it was even emptier.
Guy Cohen went to a vaccine site in Pearland for his first dose, half an hour away from his home in Meyerland, the first one available after he signed up for several waitlists. He had better luck signing up his daughter, and he said the process went smoothly.
“I can do a little bit more stuff, but I’ll still wear a mask,” Hagar Cohen said.
St. Luke’s hopes traffic will pick up as the week progresses and will determine by Friday if it will do a second walk-in clinic next week, a St. Luke’s Health spokesperson said.
At NRG, Harris County is shifting the vaccine site’s operating hours from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. to noon-9 p.m to ensure greater access, Hidalgo said.
In recent days, the site — which can administer as many as 6,000 vaccines daily — has averaged 2,000 to 3,000 doses per day.
“Perhaps I should say we’re leaving vaccines in the freezer — they’re not being used,” Hidalgo said.
The Houston Health Department and various private pharmacy providers were not offering walk-up shots as of Monday.