Registration filled up in minutes for next round of COVID vaccine clinics in Pierce County
UPDATE 9:33 AM TUESDAY: All slots are filled. The health department said it expects to announce more pop-up vaccine events soon.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department on Monday evening announced two new COVID-19 vaccination clinics coming this week.
Registration opened at 9 a.m. Tuesday (Feb. 2), for two drive-thru vaccine events in East Pierce County.
The locations are Franklin Pierce High School on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., with a goal is to immunize 1,000. The second one will be at Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup on Thursday, Feb. 4, 9 a.m.-7 p.m, with a goal is to immunize 2,500 people.
Participants must be in Phase 1A or 1B Tier 1 and live or work in Pierce County.
Karen Irwin, communications lead for the department’s COVID-19 response, said the department estimated that all slots filled up in about 20 minutes after registration started.
Those seeking future events can sign up for email alerts in advance of future COVID-19 community vaccine events at tpchd.org/notify.
“We won’t send registration links to subscribers,” the department said Monday evening.
The health department on Monday advised, “Appointments will fill quickly. We know you’re eager to get vaccinated, but in the meantime please don’t reach out to us or any site you think might host an event. Reach out to family members who don’t have Internet access – and qualify for a vaccine – to help them register.”
It added the demand for vaccines has so far overwhelmed its systems at the registration events. Registration for its Gig Harbor event led to an overabundance of registrations, and spots being taken in mere minutes.
The clinic itself on Saturday went relatively smooth with Gig Harbor police helping direct traffic flow.
Participants midday said there were no wait times when they showed up for their vaccines, in contrast to the previous events where wait times ran up to three hours in some cases.
“Last week during registration, we saw the kind of web traffic you might expect for ticket sales to a major concert,” the health department said on Twitter on Monday evening. “Our website usually doesn’t get that much traffic. We believe it caused a glitch with the link, but we’ve fixed it.”
This story was originally published February 1, 2021 at 6:11 PM.
