PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department opened registration for two coronavirus vaccination clinics at 9 a.m. Tuesday, and thousands of appointments were booked within a half hour.
The clinics will be held at Franklin Pierce High School on Feb. 3 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and at the Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup on Feb. 4 from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Officials hope to immunize 1,000 people at the Franklin Pierce event and 2,500 people at the fairgrounds event.
The health department tweeted at 9:19 a.m. that the Franklin Pierce event was full, and tweeted four minutes later that the fairgrounds event was full.
The health department said it would announce dates and times for more pop-up vaccine events soon.
The county expected appointments to fill quickly. The health department didn't release the exact date or location of the clinics early, only saying Monday they would be in east Pierce County.
To register for the clinics you must be eligible through tier 1 of Phase 1B of Washington's COVID-19 Vaccine Plan as well as live or work in Pierce County.
Registration links were available on Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department's social media sites and its website. Currently, there is no phone registration available for the county.
Last week, the county held clinics in Lakewood, Puyallup and Gig Harbor where the health department said it experienced "significant issues" with registration. Some of those issues left people upset and frustrated.
The county said its system didn't close once appointments were full for a Saturday clinic in Gig Harbor. As many as 600 people thought they had an appointment and were informed of the glitch.
The county says the problems have been fixed and it's replacing its registration system.
"We know you’ve waited a long time for this. And with vaccine supplies limited and a long list of people who want to be vaccinated, we expect there will be more bumps in the road. But we promise to work as hard as we can to provide a smoother process going forward," said Stephanie Dunkel with the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.