“ Glitch ” leads to the refusal of certain meetings of the mega-site Minute Maid Park

HOUSTON – A so-called “glitch” forced Houston health officials on Saturday to refuse some people with appointments to get vaccinated in the Minute Maid Park megasite.

Several frustrated people called the KPRC 2 newsroom to report that after standing in line for a few hours, they were told that the megasite’s vaccine supply had run out.

A video that was shared with KPRC 2 showed an employee telling a line of people about a “problem in the system where he was duplicating appointments.” The worker can be heard telling people to stay on the line so they can reschedule their appointment and be a priority for the next clinic.

In a tweet, officials from the Houston health department said they had exceeded their scheduled appointments and had to stop accepting patients due to the number of people still online. Officials said staff members are taking the names of people who have appointments that will need to be rescheduled.

“We will look at what caused us to revisit our scheduled appointments today and make sure they are corrected,” the tweet read. “We apologize for the inconvenience caused 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 patiently lined up at the Juice Box on Saturday to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Ron Cowel said he was grateful that he was able to get the vaccine at the clinic turned clinic.

“You don’t have any popcorn or hot dogs or beer, and no one is casting a wave,” Cowel said. “But you are getting your vaccine, and I appreciate it very much.

While some said they stood in line for a few hours, Donald Anderson said he was surprised at the speed at which he was moving.

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

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

Additional immunization clinics were held by hospital systems in the Houston area on Saturday.

Houston Methodist officials said about 4,500 people were vaccinated during their clinic.

Memorial Hermann Hospital also held a vaccination clinic in NRG Park for the third day. Hospital officials said more than 10,000 people had been vaccinated so far.