Austin Public Health’s online COVID-19 vaccine appointment system has had thousands of people in a digital waiting room most weeks, hoping to get one of the limited number of spots available.
Things were different this week.
By Friday, local officials said, there were hundreds of unclaimed appointments for this Tuesday.
APH opens up appointments every Monday evening and then releases leftover appointments Thursdays. There were 1,350 spots left by 9:30 p.m. yesterday, and no one waiting to claim them.
By the time officials closed the system at 10, “there were approximately 900 appointments remaining” for vaccines next week, an APH spokesperson told KUT.
“We will be releasing those appointments, along with the overall batch for next week, Monday evening,” officials said.
The APH spokesperson said the health agency “is continually evaluating the process to see how improvements and changes can be made," but it didn’t announce any plans for major changes.
Starting next week, COVID vaccines in Texas will be open to all adults, but APH officials say they will continue to prioritize more vulnerable groups.
“While there has been good progress made in vaccinating these priority populations, there still remains a large number who have not been able to get vaccinated,” APH officials said in a statement. “Anyone can register through APH, but we will continue to prioritize by age and severe risk of disease.”
