COVID-19 vaccine: Mayor of Houston Turner gets COVID-19 shot as ‘mega’ vaccine center in the works

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) – Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner was among the city’s top leaders who received their first doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine Monday.

But his vaccination at City Hall is because every available opportunity is being offered to residents to fill up on the shot quickly this month.

Earlier in the day, Turner’s office announced the start of an online appointment portal to register Houstonians eligible for Phase 1B of vaccination rollout. The site was created next to a call center that was temporarily out of service due to overwhelming demand.

The mayor visited with residents at the city’s first public COVID-19 vaccine site at the Bayou City Event Center on Sunday. Appointments there were fully booked for the second day in a row, but they could still call later this week to make an appointment.

In a tweet posted by Turner on Sunday, a total of 986 people were vaccinated.

And like Sunday, Turner reported another busy day on Monday, but he urged residents eligible for the vaccine to get the injection as soon as it becomes available. He also urged those in the black, Hispanic, and Asian-American communities – all classified as those with a high proportion of high-risk individuals – to make arrangements as soon as possible.

Aside from the mayor, Houston police chief Art Acevedo, fire chief Samuel Pena, Turner’s city council colleagues and a handful of front-line public works employees were vaccinated.

Harris County has administered at least 62,321 first doses so far, according to the state health department dashboard.

Turner said the city is trying to increase the amount of doses given each day at the public vaccination site. The city is also working on opening additional mass sites in the future. However, he said there are challenges ahead.

“We need the dollars from the latest stimulus package to get here as soon as possible,” he explains. “As you know, they didn’t make it to that until the end of the year … all the way to the end. So a lot of this hinders the possibility of hiring significantly more people, because on all these sites you really need ubiquitous vaccinations,” “Widespread vaccinations. You need more staff, quite a few, and the ability to set up mobile sites and the ability to go to people’s homes to actually vaccinate them.”

If you meet the requirements to receive your first dose of COVID-19 vaccine as part of Phase 1B and would like to make an appointment at the city’s public vaccination clinic, you can call the COVID-19 call center of the city’s health department at 832-393 -4220 or visit the city ​​of Houston vaccine website.

The clinic is located in the Bayou City Event Center, located at 9401 Knight Rd.

RodeoHouston volunteers approached future vaccination sites

Going hand in hand with a planned mega-center, Turner also faces a problem when it comes to manpower and future vaccine clinics.

In an email, former Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo volunteers were informed that the annual show had been approached by the city to help find volunteers to work on soon-to-be-opened vaccination sites.

Rodeo volunteers who agree to be part of the sites are eligible, according to the email, but do not need to be vaccinated as part of Phase 1A.

The volunteer activities range from medical to logistics and administrative.