“Glitch” causes some of Minute Maid Park’s megasite dates to be dropped

HOUSTON – A so-called “mistake” forced Houston health officials on Saturday to remove some people by appointment to get vaccinated at the Minute Maid Park megasite.

Several frustrated people called the KPRC 2 newsroom to report that after waiting a few hours in line, they were informed that the megasite vaccine supply had run out.

A video shared with KPRC 2 showed a worker announcing to a line of people that a “system error duplicating appointments” was occurring. You can hear the worker telling people to stay in line so they can reschedule the appointment and make it a priority for the next clinic.

In a tweet, Houston Department of Health officials said they reviewed their scheduled appointments and had to stop accepting patients because of the volume of people still in line. Officials said staff members take the names of people in line who had appointments that will need to be rescheduled.

“We will analyze what made us review our scheduled appointments today and make sure it is corrected,” the tweet said. “Sorry for the inconvenience, as we all work together to end this pandemic.”

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

People waited patiently in line Saturday at the juice box to get their COVID-19.

Ron Cowel said he was grateful to have gotten the vaccine at the ballpark clinic.

“You don’t have popcorn, hot dogs or beer, and no one starts the wave,” Cowel said. “But you get the vaccine and I’m very grateful.”

While some said they waited a few hours in line, Donald Anderson said he was amazed at how fast he moved.

“I said,‘ Look at all these people, ’” Anderson said. “I said, ‘It’s going to take a long time,’ but it moved very quickly.”

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