Houston's COVID-19 vaccine clinic fully booked with 750 appointments today
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- At least 1,000 people received a COVID-19 vaccination Saturday at Houston's first clinic, according to the Houston Health Department.
Appointments for Sunday's clinic filled up fast as 750 people signed up to receive the vaccine.
Across the state, vaccines are being administered to people in Phase 1A and 1B, which includes health care workers, residents and staff at long-term health facilities, people who are 65 years or older and people who have at least one chronic medical condition.
Mayor Sylvester Turner announced that the Moderna vaccine was being administered at the city's site located at the Bayou City Event Center.
People without appointments were asked not to show up at the site because they will not be seen.
Most of Sunday's appointments were booked through the department's call center on Saturday, despite the high volume of calls it received, which forced officials to move to an on-site registration format.
"We will be providing additional information on how we are going to proceed for Monday and the rest of the week," Turner added.
Visit the Texas COVID-19 Vaccine Provider Locations map to find and call nearby providers offering the vaccine.
Turner said the goal is to administer 100,000 vaccines in January and announced that he will be getting the vaccine on Monday.
Ruben Nava from Humble said he was part of a Pfizer vaccine trial, and spent hours on the Houston phone line Saturday to get his wife, who is high-risk, an appointment.
"We were persistent for almost four hours," Nava said. "Finally, at 11:15 a.m., we got through and someone finally answered the phone. Happy tears were coming out of her eyes, and she actually got set up for the vaccine tomorrow."
Nava said he called other friends and family members and they got through on the phone system as well after it was back up and running.
"You just got to do what you got to do," Nava said. "Whether it's getting on one of these studies, or getting the vaccine. We just want to be safe and hopefully get back to normal again."
Jeffery Morris Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania is part of a study that previously projected the surge following the Fourth of July and Memorial Day weekend, analyzing cell phone data.
He said right now, Harris County cases are projected at about 2,000 COVID-19 cases a day, and anticipated for the numbers to continue to climb over the next few weeks.
"The model is projecting it to continue increasing into the next several weeks and get up to a level of about 3,000 per day," Morris said. "The model doesn't really have built into it any extra surge from Christmas or New Year's gatherings, so that may provide an extra boost."
Turner also reported 2,334 new COVID-19 cases in Houston over the past two days and said eight more people have died.
To make an appointment at the city's public vaccine clinic, you can call the health department's COVID-19 call center at 832-393-4220.
The clinic is located at the Bayou City Event Center, 9401 Knight Rd, Houston, TX 77045. For more information, click here.
