UMC registrations for 5,000 vaccinations filled in 3 minutes

UPDATE: All of University Medical Center's latest vaccination appointments were booked within three minutes of online registration going live at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

No more spots are currently available until Thursday morning's "super-senior" registration. See original report below for further details.

ORIGINAL REPORT: EL PASO, Texas – University Medical Center said Tuesday it has now received 5,000 more first doses of coronavirus vaccine that it is ready to distribute.

Registration will open at 6 p.m. Tuesday at UMCelpaso.org for those in state vaccination categories 1A and 1B, which includes healthcare workers, first-responders, anyone 65 and older or others with certain underlying health conditions.

A UMC spokesman said it's anticipated, similarly to past registration events, that all 5,000 vaccination appointments will be filled within minutes.

The UMC website will only accept registrations until all open appointments are scheduled. After that point, the site will close access.

In addition, UMC will be holding a special appointment registration Thursday at 9 a.m. "super seniors" - those 75 years of age and older.

At that time, "super seniors" can register online at UMCelpaso.org or by calling 915-200-2700. Both the telephone number and website will close after available appointments are taken on Thursday.

There will be 2,500 appointments available online for "super seniors" online and 1,000 available by phone, officials indicated.

UMC also said it has received a shipment of Moderna second doses of vaccine and would be reaching out to confirm appointments for those second dose recipients. The hospital said all Pfizer second doses will continue to be given as scheduled.