Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins In Arguing With State Over COVID-19 Vaccine Allowances In North Texas

AUSTIN – North Texas will receive more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine next week, but Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said the state is still missing local residents their fair share of vaccines.

Dallas County is getting about 9,000 more first doses distributed among multiple providers, according to the Texas State Department Health Services.

Jenkins said the addition didn’t come close to the number of shots the state has cut since the federal government opened a site in Dallas County that vaccinates about 21,000 people each week.

The state is counting doses administered at the federally-backed site as part of the county’s allocation, though these injections only affect the area’s most vulnerable residents in specific neighborhoods. This means the state is sending fewer doses to county centers that must vaccinate anyone who is eligible, regardless of where they live, Jenkins said.

The waiting list for these places includes around 650,000 people, he added.

“It was never understood that by getting help for the underserved people in Dallas County, the state would punish the rest of the people in Dallas County,” he said.

The Department of State Health Services defended his decision. Spokesman Chris Van Deusen said that before the Federal Emergency Management Agency site opened, Dallas County had already received more than an average per capita vaccine share.

“Doubling that just wasn’t going to be fair; it was not going to be fair to the rest of the state, ”he said. There are still urban and suburban communities that are not caught up where they should be, added Van Deusen.

The conflict shows how demand for the coronavirus vaccine still far exceeds supply.

About 1.7 million Texans are fully vaccinated, according to state data. But Texas’ top two priority groups for the vaccine, which include frontline healthcare workers and people 65 and older, have around 10 million residents.

The state is expected to receive nearly 700,000 first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine next week – one of its biggest shipments.

As a result, the number of vaccines the state has allocated to suppliers in Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties are all expected to increase. Dallas and Tarrant counties have 21,060 doses of their total set aside for FEMA sites.

Not counting those injections, Dallas County hubs and small providers are expected to receive around 34,000 first doses next week. That’s about 24,700 first doses last week.

In the previous three weeks – when a federal site was not yet open – suppliers and hubs at Dallas County hubs were assigned between 42,000 and 48,000 first doses, according to data from the State.

Usually, when counties get a federal grant, for something like body cameras, the state doesn’t anchor them equivalent, Jenkins said. As the state receives more doses in the future, Dallas County vaccinators should also see their allocation increase, not decrease, he said.

Vaccine shipments to Texas are only expected to increase, especially with the expected approval of a third vaccine from Johnson & Johnson. Unlike the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, it only requires one dose.