Collin County commissioners decided Feb. 8 to pause new registrations due to an inability to keep up with demand for available doses. At the time, more than 275,000 names were on the list. County Administrator Bill Bilyeu said there were just over 10,000 names remaining as of Monday, March 8.
“We actually have a request in [for vaccines] that probably will extinguish that [list] in the next few days,” Bilyeu said during a March 8 commissioners meeting.
Bilyeu said personnel have been “overburdened” with managing the waitlist because the county is essentially operating as a middleman between patients and those administering the vaccine. Commissioners gave Bilyeu the green light to determine a time when new appointments will become available on the county website. The county plans to allow those eligible to receive a vaccine under Phases 1A and 1B to begin making appointments with vendors March 12, though a specific time has not been determined.
Bilyeu said he expects vaccination hubs in McKinney and Frisco to also begin allowing eligible patients to begin scheduling appointments soon.
Collin County Judge Chris Hill called the impending end of the county waitlist a “huge accomplishment.”
“I know everyone who's been following this understands,” Hill said. “But for those that are just now starting to pay attention, [there were] 275,000 people on our waitlist and by the end of this week, we should be done with that. That's truly remarkable.”
