“We have the vaccine supply and we want to continue to put as many shots in arms as we can,” APH Director Stephanie Hayden-Howard said in a news release. “As we see a nationwide decline in appointment scheduling, we know we must decrease barriers for individuals to get vaccinated without technological barriers.”
Walk-up appointments will be offered at the Delco Activity Center, located at 4601 Pecan Brook Drive, Austin, from noon to 7:30 p.m. while supplies last. Appointments continue to be encouraged, APH said.
APH is still requiring appointments at other locations but has expanded the scheduling availability through its online registration portal. Beginning April 20, the portal will open for sign-ups at 6:45 p.m. and remain open until April 23 at 7 a.m. It will remain closed for 12 hours until 7 p.m. on the 23rd to allow staff time to update the portal with an updated schedule for the following week, APH said.
The changes come as APH has seen fewer community members make vaccine appointments in the past two weeks. Last weekend, when the organization's portal remained open from April 17 until the mornin of April 20, 4,308 appointments were booked with thousands more available, Hayden-Howard told a joint session of Austin City Council and the Travis County Commissioners Court on April 20.
"We're going to continue to pivot in the month of May to shift to neighborhood clinics," she said. "It's going to be important for us to continue to partner with the community, connect with grassroots organizations, and be very targeted and intentional."
