HOUSTON — The process to register for a COVID-19 vaccine from one of Texas’ new vaccine hub providers sounds easy, but after trying it out, KHOU 11 learned it leads mostly to dead ends.
There are only three vaccine hub providers in the Greater Houston Area and they are all located within Harris County.
The Texas Department of State Health Services has designated Harris County Public Health, the Houston Health Department and Houston Methodist Hospital as vaccine hub providers.
According to the state health department’s website, you must be one of the following in order to qualify for a vaccine from one of the hub providers:
- be a front-line healthcare worker
- work at a long-term care facility
- be 65 or older
- have a chronic medical condition that would make you prone to a severe illness
There are no restrictions for where a person must live which means you do not have to be a resident of a specific county to get the vaccine at a Houston-area hub.
Once you have selected the hub provider, the instructions say to click on the registration link where you will sign up.
When you click on the vaccine registration link for Harris County Public Health a message pops up which reads: “No Appointments. We have no appointments available at this time. Once Harris County Public Health has received another vaccine shipment from the state, we will open this registration up again.”
The state's website says, “Depending on the provider, you may be placed on a waiting list and may be contacted (phone, email or text) when vaccines become available. Please look carefully at the hub’s registration site for details.”
There is nothing on the hub registration page for Harris County Public Health that allows you to leave your contact information and there is nothing about a waiting list.
The Houston Health Department’s vaccine hub provider registration link took us nowhere on Monday as well.
The link leads to a message from the health department which states that all appointments “are filled for the remainder of January 2021.
The registration link to Houston Methodist Hospital does take you to a registration page.
The page states that if there is availability for you to get a vaccine, someone will contact you after you give your information.
However, it states that if you are not contacted, it means there was no availability.
The hub provider registration for Methodist also states that it is only registering vaccine appointments for those who are over the age of 65.