‘Glitch’ causes some with commitments to be rejected at Minute Maid Park megasite

HOUSTON – A so-called “failure” on Saturday forced Houston health officials to refuse some people with commitments to be vaccinated in the Minute Maid Park megasito.

Several frustrated people called the KPRC 2 newsroom to report that, after waiting in line for a few hours, they were told that the megasite vaccine supply had run out. A video that was shared with KPRC 2 showed a worker announcing just that, saying that a “system failure where he duplicated commitments”. 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 revised their scheduled appointments and had to stop accepting patients because of the volume of people still in line. Officials said officials were taking notes of the people in the queue who had appointments that would need to be rescheduled.

“We will check what led us to review our commitments scheduled for today and ensure that they are corrected,” said the tweet. “We apologize for the inconvenience, as we all work together to end this pandemic.”

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner tweeted on Saturday night that 6,122 people were vaccinated during the clinic.

People waited patiently in line at the Juice Box on Saturday to receive their injection of COVID-19.

Ron Cowel said he was grateful to have got the vaccine at the stadium that became a clinic.

“You don’t have popcorn, hot dogs or beer, and no one is starting the wave,” said Cowel. “But you are getting your vaccine, and I am very grateful.”

While some said they waited in line for a few hours, Donald Anderson said he was surprised at how quickly he moved.

“I said, ‘Look at all these people,'” said Anderson. “I said, ‘It will take too long’, but it changed too fast.”

Houston Mayor Sylvester said the goal was to get several hundred people in and out of the megasite every hour.

Other vaccine clinics were run by hospital systems in the Houston area on Saturday.

Houston Methodist officials said about 4,500 people were vaccinated during their clinic.

Hermann Memorial Hospital also ran a vaccine clinic at NRG Park for the third day. Hospital officials said more than 10,000 people have been vaccinated so far.