Update: Appointments for Tri-Cities fairgrounds COVID vaccinations in question

Appointments made online for the mass vaccination clinic at the Benton County Fairgrounds in Kennewick cannot be honored, said officials running the clinic on Monday.

No more people were being accepted at the Tri-Cities mass vaccination clinic by late morning on opening day Monday. It was scheduled to start giving vaccines at 1 p.m.

The Washington state Department of Health announced Tuesday morning that starting Tuesday the fairgrounds clinic would require appointments.

As hundreds of people rushed to claim those spots, organizers at the fairgrounds said that information was incorrect. They plan to continue to give vaccines first come, first serve this week.

Those operating the site do not have access to the state’s appointment system, said the Benton Franklin Health District.

Later in the afternoon the local health district posted on Facebook that it was discussing with the state Department of Health the preregistrations approved for Tuesday through the state’s appointment system, but released no further information Monday.

The city of Kennewick put out a press release late Monday morning saying that the clinic would be open 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday only and will depend on vaccine availability.

It said the days and hours announced by the Washington state Department of Health Monday were wrong.

The state Department of Health has not retracted the press release it distributed.

The Washington state Department of Health said that its goal is to provide approximately 500 vaccinations per site, per day.

However, it will need to ramp up to that goal in the initial days.

“As our vaccine allocations increase, these sites will provide additional capacity to get people vaccinated quickly and efficiently across the state,” said Umair A. Shah, Washington state secretary of health.

Currently, vaccines are only being given to people 65 or older and people 50 and older living in multigenerational households. Health care employees and staff and residents of long-term care facilities for the elderly also are eligible.

This story was originally published January 25, 2021 at 9:59 AM.