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Texas is emerging as the largest state to expand COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to all adults, more than a month ahead of President Joe Biden’s goal of making vaccines available to anyone who wants one. ‘here May 1st.
The announcement by state health officials on Tuesday adds Texas to the growing list of states that are making the vaccine available to all adults. The drastic expansion for the state’s nearly 30 million people will begin on Monday.
“We are getting closer to 10 million doses administered in Texas, and we want to continue the momentum as vaccine supply increases,” said Imelda Garcia, chair of the state’s Expert Vaccine Allocation Panel.
Do you want to register on a waiting list for vaccines?
The county health departments have started waiting lists for those who want to be vaccinated and eligible for phase 1A, 1B, 1C and child care and education staff.
You can sign up to receive the immunization in Collin, Dallas, Denton, and Tarrant counties. The links are below:
Waitlist links: Collin – Research waiting list | Dallas | Denton | Tarrant
You don’t have to be a county resident to register for a COVID-19 vaccine in that county – registration is open to anyone in Texas. For those without internet access, Tarrant County also takes registrations by phone at 817-248-6299. In Dallas County, call the DCHHS Vaccine Helpline at 1-855-IMMUNE9 (1-855-466-8639). In Denton County, dial 940-349-2585.
For the past two weeks, Texas has been the nation’s largest unrestricted coronavirus state after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott repealed a mask mandate that divided businesses and lifted occupancy limits for restaurants and retail businesses. Hospitalizations in Texas have fallen to their lowest level since October, but local health officials say they are again monitoring the numbers closely after spring break last week.
Alaska was the first state to open up vaccine eligibility to all adults, and others are now rushing to do the same, including Tennessee and Missouri.
Texas has one of the slowest vaccination rates in the country. About 10% of the state’s population had been fully vaccinated as of Tuesday and about 22% had received at least one dose, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control.
State officials blamed the numbers on power outages caused by a deadly winter storm in February and said federal officials used outdated census data to determine the shipment of doses from Texas.
Biden earlier this month used his first prime-time speech to promise that all adults in the United States would be eligible for the vaccine starting May 1.
The vaccine is currently only given to those in Phase 1A, 1B, and 1C, as reported by the Texas Department of State Health Services. People in phase 1A are frontline healthcare workers or residents of long-term care facilities. Phase 1B includes people over 65 or over 16 with chronic illness that puts them at risk for serious illness.
On March 3, vaccine availability was expanded to include school and daycare workers. On March 15, vaccine eligibility was expanded to include Phase 1C, which includes anyone over the age of 50.
President Biden said the vaccine should be available to all Americans by May 1.
Once vaccinated, people are expected to achieve some level of protection within a few weeks of the first shot, but full protection may not occur until a few weeks after the second shot. Even fully vaccinated, it is still possible to be infected with the virus since the vaccine does not offer 100% protection.
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