AUSTIN (KXAN) — Next week, the wait will be over for thousands of Central Texans in need of a COVID-19 vaccine. This comes as the state will see more than a million dose increase in supply.
The Department of State Health Services says there will be more doses from Johnson & Johnson and local pharmacies will see a big boost.
This is a welcomed relief for some of our viewers who tried to sign up for their first doses of the vaccine through Austin Public Health. On Thursday, many of them saw a tweet saying there were still thousands of appointments left.
Scheduling was closed and there were still appointments available. Austin Public Health told KXAN News almost all remaining appointments were for April 6. Those appointments will be included in its upcoming Monday release for next week's appointments.
The department says all appointments for the week have still been filling up. However, staffers are seeing the appointments for that following Tuesday (which are available on Thursdays) are not quite filling up as fast and they aren't quite sure why. Based on these last several appointments, APH is evaluating the release process to possibly expand eligibility within its system.
Currently, there are approximately 250,000 eligible accounts on APH who have not scheduled their first dose. APH believes there is a large number of people who have received a vaccination from a different provider. They launched a feature earlier in the week that allows individuals to update their profile with vaccination information if they received it from somewhere else.
APH says it has been working out a way to allow for the prioritization of groups within its system to ensure people are still able to access appointments when eligibility is expanded to all individuals.
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