Houston opens up 3,000 vaccine appointments for later this week

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Houstonians living in what has been considered a "vaccine desert" will soon have a drive-thru clinic available to deliver first doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

The Houston Health Department said 3,000 appointment slots are available for a vaccine site provided by Curative. The appoints for the clinic located at 2098 Reed Road are for April 1-3.

The video above is from a February 2021 report by 13 Investigates' Ted Oberg on Houston's "vaccine deserts"

Appointments can be made through the city's Emergency Operations Center website or through the Curative website.

The health department added that anyone accessing the Curative website should search "Houston - Reed Rd. - Dose 1 Moderna" to access the appointments. People 18 years and older can start registering now for April 1 and 2. Your first opportunity for April 3 appointments starts at 8 a.m. on Wednesday.

Appointments are only confirmed upon receipt of an email or text message and confirmation numbers/QR codes will be verified on site. People who show up without confirmed appointments will be turned away.

The new site will tentatively operate Wednesdays through Saturdays with an initial capacity of 1,000 doses daily, based on supply.

New vaccination site located in "vaccine desert"

The Reed Road site is situated south of the South Loop and just west of Highway 288, which is adjacent to the Sunnyside neighborhood in southeast Houston.

Back in February, 13 Investigates mapped out Houston communities that have been left out of vaccine distribution, with a majority of those neighborhoods falling in areas where there are more minorities and uninsured residents.

Reed Road's 77051 zip code falls in one of those communities. To go further, data released after the first full month of vaccinations showed only 825 of the 17,052 people living in the 77051 zip code were vaccinated.

Since that data was released, significant steps have been made at the federal, state and local levels to address vaccine inequities, including the opening of the FEMA community site at NRG Park.