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Austin Public Health To Open Vaccine Eligibility To General Public On Monday

A person gets a COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic in Austin.
Gabriel C. Pérez
/
KUT
A person gets a COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic in Austin.

Austin Public Health is opening up COVID-19 vaccine signups to all adults next week. Beginning Monday, anyone 18 years or older will be eligible to schedule an appointment to get their first dose of the Moderna vaccine.

The public health department has been opening its online signup portal only to people in the 1A, 1B and 1C categories, as well as child care providers, educators and people 40 and older.

The state opened vaccine eligibility to people 16 and older at the end of March, but APH has been continuing to prioritize appointments to those it sees as most vulnerable. APH’s vaccines will open only to people 18 and up because the agency is administering the Moderna vaccine, which is not approved for use right now in people under 18.

To sign up for an appointment, people must pre-register online. Those without internet access can call 512-974-2000.

APH has been releasing appointments to eligible registered individuals on Mondays and Thursdays at 6 p.m. During the releases, people log on to covid19.austintexas.gov and are put in a queue until it's their turn to schedule. The queue typically opens before the release, at 5:45 p.m.

APH says release times and dates can vary week to week as its operations change. The agency has been posting updates about this process on its Twitter account.

Last week and the week before, there were more appointments available than there were people in the waiting room. But this week, after APH expanded eligibility to people 40 and up, more people were in line to get an appointment than there were appointments available.

Marisa Charpentier is KUT's assistant digital editor. Got a tip? Email her at mcharpentier@kut.org. Follow her on Twitter @marisacharp.
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