Houston area to receive surge of COVID-19 vaccine doses this week

The Greater Houston area is expected to receive an influx of more than 62,000 COVID-19 vaccines this week, due to an increase in the number of vaccines provided to the state by the federal government and large allocations to providers in the Houston area state officials said. Friday.

“The increase in the number of vaccines available is due to two factors: a 30% increase in the number of Moderna doses provided to the state by the federal government, and a single return of 126,750 doses of the Pfizer vaccine that Texas was kept set aside for the federal pharmaceutical partnership program for long-term care, ”state health officials said in a statement. “The program overestimated the amount of vaccine needed, so the doses are redistributed to states.”

The Texas Department of State Health Services said it was allocating long-term care program doses to providers in counties where the allocations “have been significantly lower than their share of the population, particularly in the Dallas-Fort suburbs. Worth and Houston. “

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In total, Texas will receive 520,425 first doses of COVID-19 vaccine from the federal government for the week of February 1. More than 62,000 of these doses will be delivered to providers in the Greater Houston area, including Harris, Fort Bend, Liberty, Montgomery, Chambers and Galveston. The Harris County Public Health Department and the City of Houston Public Health Department are expected to receive 9,000 vaccinations each.

In addition to the upcoming first doses, the state has ordered 188,225 doses intended to be the second dose for people initially vaccinated a few weeks ago.

Currently, Texans are only eligible for the vaccine if they are frontline healthcare workers, nursing home residents, 65 years of age or older, or have a health condition that puts them at risk for it. increased risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19.

“The vaccine remains limited due to the ability of manufacturers to produce it, so it will take time for Texas to receive enough vaccine for everyone in priority populations who want to be vaccinated,” health officials said. in a press release. “Currently, there are not enough vaccines to supply every supplier with vaccine every week.”

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Providers in Texas administered nearly 2.2 million doses of the vaccine on Friday. Over 1.75 million people have received at least one dose and over 410,000 have received both doses.