CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The health department's first push to be a mass vaccination in the state of Texas is off to a rocky start.
It all began Sunday night when the registration site was not working properly.
"There was a glitch and so we were not able to handle the amount of people online trying to get onto the website," said Mayor-Elect Paulette Guajardo.
City Manager, Peter Zanoni, says hundreds of thousands of people tried to access the site when registration opened and the traffic was just too much.
"We had over three hundred thousand people try to get into the system," added Zanoni. "The system just couldn't handle it."
For residents like Rick Lyon, he was ready to register but the site wouldn't work. He couldn't believe the failure.
"I had two computers going at the same time, I logged in earlier than 5 o'clock to make sure I was there and nothing," said Lyon.
Lyon believes the city was nowhere near prepared.
"My disappointment is just in the complete lack of planning," continued Lyon. "Why didn't they go out and make a list of people to sign up and get people to register."
Guajardo and Zanoni believe the issue is now resolved.
"We are very confident moving forward," said Guajardo. "That will not happen again."
Zanoni believes the issue with the site is quite simple: they underestimated the traffic.
The city and county will continue to vaccinate eligible residents in the Coastal Bend. Guajardo says that in order to succeed, there will need to be constant communication.
"We must communicate with them," she said.
Rick Lyon, however, is just waiting, wondering when he will get his vaccine.
"I don't care if I get my shot tomorrow, next week or next month, but I'd like to know that I'm in line and I'm going to get it."
