DC Health will open an additional 4,309 coronavirus vaccine appointments to residents in Wards 1, 4, 5, 7 and 8 on Saturday, according to a press release from the agency.

The appointments will be available to people over the age of 65 or people who work in health care settings. The move is meant to ensure a more equitable distribution of the vaccine across the District, after those five wards saw the fewest sign-ups following the initial release of appointment windows on Monday.

“This new Ward based approach will help ensure residents with the greatest risk have access to the vaccine,” said Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, in a statement to WUSA9.

There’s a significant geographical gulf in sign-ups across the city. Residents in Ward 3 snagged the most spots of any Ward earlier in the week, at 2,465 appointments, according to DC Health. Meanwhile, majority-Black areas of the city didn’t have many sign ups. In Ward 7, just 197 people got vaccination appointments. In Ward 8, that number plummeted to 94.

Wards 2 and 3, both affluent areas of the District, have the least amount of coronavirus cases, according to DC Health data. Ward 3 residents may have gotten the highest number of vaccination appointments, but their neighborhoods account for the lowest number of actual coronavirus infections, at 1,796 over the course of the entire pandemic. Ward 4 has the highest number of infections at 5,477, but its residents booked a fraction of the vaccination appointments of Ward 3 residents. And Ward 8, which secured the lowest number of appointments last week, has the city’s highest death toll with 163 residents passing away from COVID-19, compared to 43 in Ward 3.

The original rollout of vaccine appointments for Washingtonians over the age of 65 on Monday had some glitches. Many complained on social media about long wait times on the phone and technical problems with the online sign-up portal and the text alert system meant to inform residents that appointments were available. All 6,700 slots were gone in a matter of hours.

During a meeting between D.C. councilmembers and D.C. Health director LaQuandra Nesbitt on Wednesday, lawmakers argued that residents in majority-Black wards should be prioritized for appointments. McDuffie cited anecdotal evidence that Ward 3 residents had been taking slots in Wards 5 and 8, according to Washington City Paper. Nesbitt pushed back against that idea, explaining that D.C. Health had intentionally created large vaccination sites in wards 5, 7, and 8.

After D.C. Health issued the alert Friday night, Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh issued a lengthy Twitter thread and community letter contextualizing the move, knocking D.C. Health for “inadequately” explaining the decision that apparently had frustrated some of her constituents, who believed they would now have a hard time receiving a vaccine. What was not included in the notification sent out by D.C. Health was that an additional 1,436 appointments will become available to all residents of any ward who are 65 and older or work in healthcare starting on Monday, January 18.

“Exposure threat, high risk factors, and equity should be taken into account in our vaccine distribution plan. And, because the news released today was not carefully explained or contextualized, it has angered and alarmed many people,” Cheh wrote in her letter. “It is deeply frustrating that the Council was not briefed on this decision before the alert, and many vulnerable seniors and those with co-morbidities are afraid that their zip code will dictate whether they are able to receive a vaccine or not. To this point, it is unacceptable that the alert omitted the caveat that 1,400 additional appointments will be released on Monday to ALL senior residents.”

As Cheh explains in her letter, D.C. receives new shipments of vaccine doses every week, thus appointments become available as more vaccines come in.

“Rightly placed fear and the extreme disruption of coronavirus has lead many to feel that they will only have a few select opportunities to receive a vaccine, but that is actually not the case,” Cheh writes. “Eventually, everyone for whom it is medically safe to receive a vaccine, will get one. And our anxiety to get one right away should not cloud the pursuit of equitable vaccine distribution.”

By mid-day on Saturday, councilmembers had reported resident’s difficulties with the website on Twitter, and it reportedly crashed at one point in the morning.

To schedule a vaccine appointment when the new batch becomes available on Saturday, residents can log on to vaccinate.dc.gov or call 1-855-363-0333. The phone lines will be open on Saturday starting at 8 am until 4 pm. (They’re also open on weekdays from 8 am to 7 pm, though appointments are filling up fast.)

Residents who’ve signed up for an appointment will receive a confirmation code to bring to their appointment, in addition to a photo I.D. Anyone who attempted to sign up for a vaccination slot earlier in the week but did not receive a confirmation code will need to go through the process again. Expect to stay for up to 30 minutes for observation after being vaccinated.