Coronavirus Houston: 13 studies areas with more COVID-19 deaths and fewer vaccines

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) – 13 Investigations first revealed how some of Harris County’s most vulnerable neighborhoods need a COVID-19 vaccine more, but have less access to receive one.

Now we are looking at the communities with a higher death rate and whether those neighborhoods are getting the vaccine or not.

SEE ALSO: Houston area residents ‘suffering’ in low income, minority areas without vaccines

Our survey found that a dozen zip codes east of downtown Houston have a higher death rate of 151 deaths per 100,000 population, but the overall vaccination rate for these communities is 4.5. %.

We wanted to see where the vaccines go and found 40% of Harris County zip codes where the death rate is not as high – with less than 150 deaths per 100,000 population – and yet there is a higher percentage of the population that is vaccinated. The disparities explain why doctors and clinics advocate for immunization program officials to deliver vaccines to neighborhoods rather than mass vaccination sites.

“We need it here. We have the people dying of COVID, the Hispanic population, African Americans, low-income and low-income people are here in Harris health. We need them here,” a said Glorimar Medina, the executive vice president of ambulatory care services at Harris Health System, last month.

INTERACTIVE: Want to know which communities have a higher death rate but fewer people vaccinated? Explore the map for these details broken down by zip code. On a mobile device? Click here for a full screen experience.

Dr Erica Villalobos, a doctor at the HOPE Aldine clinic, said residents in her neighborhood sometimes do not have access to transportation, the internet or other resources needed to sign up for a vaccine and receive a dose. .

“The risk of continuing to not have access to the vaccine is always an increased risk of becoming infected with COVID and succumbing to the serious complications associated with COVID, including death,” she said.

In zip code 77039 where his clinic is located, the death rate is 109.2 deaths per 100,000 residents and only 2.7% of residents have been vaccinated, according to an analysis of city data.

There are more than 28,000 residents who live in this neighborhood, but only 600 vaccines have been allocated since the state began distributing vaccines nine weeks ago. The HOPE Aldine clinic has been approved by the state to provide the vaccine, but they have not yet received any doses.

“We all want the best for the community, and the best for the community right now is to be able to vaccinate,” Villalobos said.

Across the county, 3,081 residents have died from COVID-19. The city and county provide information on the number of deaths in each zip code daily.

Postal code-level immunization data for Houston and Harris County is not available on the city or county website. The latest data we received on the number of residents vaccinated in each postal code was up to date until February 4, 2021.

The data lag provides some limitations to our analysis. As of this week, 351,391 Harris County residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 126,632 are fully immunized.

We only received data on the number of people vaccinated by postal code for 67% of the residents vaccinated in Harris County.

The state has said it would like agencies to collect better immunization data. For example, race and ethnicity data for 40% of Texas residents who received a vaccine is unknown. It’s kind of in Harris County, where race and ethnicity is unknown for just 28% of residents vaccinated.

“[It] makes it difficult to know whether entities are actually reaching these communities, ”said Dr. David Lakey, member of the Texas Expert Vaccine Allocation Panel.

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