ROBSTOWN, Texas — People started lining up at the Richard Borchard Fairgrounds in Robstown as early as 7:00 a.m. Monday morning. With the line not moving early in the morning, some got frustrated.
One of those people, a Corpus Christi woman who simply wished to be known as “Yvonne.” Despite having an appointment for a vaccine, she left after more than two hours in line.
“There are thousands of cars, people all waiting to be vaccinated, and the line is not moving, and then we understand that the vaccine isn’t even here, they’re waiting for it to be delivered. We were tired of waiting, and there was nothing we could do, nobody gave us any direction on what’s happening. Just to sit here hour after hour, and not know what’s happening,” she said.
For some people, leaving was not an option. Calallen resident Kathy Ricks was in line hoping to get her and her 92-year-old father vaccinated. She couldn’t register the two of them due to the city’s website crashing. They were willing to wait as long as they needed to, because Ricks works Tuesday, and cannot come back for the second day of vaccinations.
“It’s an uncomfortable situation trying to get something that we feel we direly need,” Ricks said. “Mainly because of his age, I feel that we need to get here as soon as possible. We’re trying to last it out, and hopefully we’ll be one of the ones that gets the vaccine.”
Ricks was not alone in waiting as long as she needed to for the vaccine. Janice Matosky of Corpus Christi, was prepared to wait as long as she needed to get the vaccine. She expected a long wait, so she brought a book to read, and some homemade banana bread to enjoy.
“I’m not leaving unless they tell me I have to go home. I already have this much time invested in it, I’m not going to give that up,” she said.
Portland resident Rick Hinojosa said he and his wife were willing to wait for the vaccine, and just hoped they could get the vaccines they signed up for.
“It is what it is, we’re probably going to be here a couple hours. Hopefully they’re not going to say they ran out of the vaccine, because I have an appointment for one, I signed up online,” he said.
Juan Herrera waited more than four hours before even getting into the parking lot at the fairgrounds. He got out of his truck to stretch a bit, and prepared for the long wait.
“If I have to wait, I don’t know how long, but I’m going to stay here. I’m going to try my best to be here until maybe five or six o’clock,” Herrera said at 2:00 p.m.
In total, the city planned to vaccinate around 1,000 people at the fairgrounds Monday, and will be vaccinating people every day this week until Thursday.