The head of the Shelby County Health Department apologized after residents who were scheduled to receive their COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday faced hours-long waits and in some cases were turned away.
“I know yesterday did not go as smoothly as we would want it to go,” Dr. Alisa Haushalter said at a press conference Wednesday night. “We had many days that went very smoothly, and we increased the number of appointments yesterday. And as a result of that increase, the number of people that came through really exceeded our capacity internally.”
She said the health department, which is operating the main public vaccination site at the Pipkin building in Midtown, added additional staff to accommodate Wednesday’s crowd. But, some issues remained as several people idling in their cars around 6 p.m. told WKNO they had been in line since 1:30.
Haushalter noted that demand for the vaccine continues to outpace supply.
Although the health department has built their vaccine campaign around an appointment-only system, Haushalter said people not scheduled have been showing up. Staff will ask them to exit the line, but Haushalter said they are not strictly making people show proof of registration.
“We are communicating clearly that we expect that people have an appointment,” she said. “It’s sort of a balancing act if someone is eligible for the vaccine, and if they say they have an appointment, we’re going to trust that they have that appointment. But, we'll continue to try to fine tune that.”
Facing a public desperate for a limited amount of doses, Haushalter said she hopes that as more providers of vaccinations come online, such as primary care physicians and pharmacies, it will reduce reliance solely on the health department.
She added that those who had an appointment and didn’t make it through the queue on Tuesday or Wednesday, would receive top priority to rebook and would be contacted by health department staff.
The health department also intends to add more vaccination sites across the county, including one in Whitehaven.