Is Texas doing a great job with administering the COVID-19 vaccine, as Trump says?

During his speech at the border wall in Alamo, Texas on Tuesday, President Donald Trump spoke of his administration’s major accomplishments.

In addition to discussions on immigration and border security, Trump noted the rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“No one thought it was possible,” Trump said. “They said it would take five years … well, we did it like I said.”

Requirement

Trump then mentioned the vaccine rollout in all 50 states and praised Texas Governor Greg Abbott for handling the administration of the vaccine.

“And we’re delivering it now to the states, including your state, where your governor and government are doing a tremendous job of getting it administered in Texas.

Facts

Texas is doing well compared to other states in terms of vaccine administration.

As of Jan. 12, the CDC said 27.7 million doses of the vaccine had been distributed across the country, but only a third (9.3 million) had been administered.

In the majority of states, only 2.8 percent of the population have received the vaccine. Texas is in the middle of the states. With a population of 29 million, Texas administered the vaccine to 3.1% of its population. This is more than New York (3%) and California (2.1%).

Abbott bragged on Twitter of a Bloomberg report that ranked Texas second in the top 20 states for percentage of shots used. As of Jan. 13, Texas has administered 911,461 doses of the vaccine, or 46.8 percent of the vaccines distributed in the state.

Texas has administered more doses of the Covid vaccine than any other state.

We rank # 2 in the top 20 states for percentage of shots used.

Our numbers will continue to improve as we are barely using the large-scale vaccination sites.

Everything from today. pic.twitter.com/2NlU7jEnB1

– Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 13, 2021

Abbott said Texas expects to see 310,000 additional first doses per week for the remainder of January and up to 500,000 seconds for those who have already received the first dose of the vaccine in previous weeks. Continued increases are expected, Abbott said, based on federal government allocations.

The state has established 28 designated centers for the administration of the vaccine. Phase 1A included doctors and healthcare workers, while 1B included people over 65 and people over 16 with certain serious health conditions.

Abbott told the Texas Tribune that its only limitation at this point is supply, which is not something the state of Texas controls.

“The vaccine supply comes only from the federal government, and for them it comes largely from the manufacturing capabilities” of the companies making the vaccine, Abbot said.

Texas Health Commissioner John Hellerstedt said the pace and scale of the state’s deployment has been “a truly incredible operation” and said establishing the centers would increase the rate of administration.

Our goal is that at the end of the week we have no more vaccines left.

Judge B. Glen Whitley of Tarrant County

“Our goal is that by the end of the week we have no more vaccines left,” said Judge B. Glen Whitley of Tarrant County.

As of Jan. 13, Texas had 22,270 new confirmed cases and a total of 1,775,619 confirmed cases, 247,016 probable cases and 30,624 deaths, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Johns Hopkins University and the New York Times report a total of more than 2 million cases. The state has seen an upward trend in new cases since Christmas.

Like most other states, the initial vaccine rollout was accompanied by confusion and logistical challenges.

At the end of December, Hellerstedt published a letter urging “entities that have been assigned vaccines to administer their entire batch at any deliberate speed.” The letter indicated that a significant portion of the vaccines had probably not yet been administered. The ministry has asked facilities with vaccines to create time limits and use a “sense of urgency” to use the vaccines.

“We hope you know your situation much better than we could, so we urge you to take the initiative and move forward aggressively by administering the full dose of vaccine you have received,” says the letter.

At the start of 2021, Texas Tribune said the vaccination rollout has been “confusing” so far, with medical experts and others unsure how the state plans to deliver the vaccine to around 30 million people. There was a “vague message” about details of who was eligible to receive a vaccination, where to get it and how to schedule a vaccination from government officials, as well as technical errors, logistical delays and even. supply shortages in some areas.

Hospitals, pharmacies and health centers had to build new planning systems from the ground up and struggled to keep up with the “anxious public wondering when their turn was coming”.

When Texas announced open vaccination to the second group – those over 65 or people 16 or older with certain health conditions, many healthcare providers were caught off guard. According to Texas Tribune, phone lines are blocked, websites have crashed, and lines are longer.

According to Texas Tribune, at Memorial Hermann, a link was emailed to 50,000 patients selected and qualified to schedule their vaccine at one of the seven public clinics. But some recipients have started forwarding this link to friends and family, and even posting it on Instagram. Each space was reserved after 36 hours and people who weren’t supposed to register were on the schedule. Staff members had to turn people away if they did not meet the state’s criteria for a vaccine at that time.

Experts said some providers could take weeks to get enough vaccine to start administering to members in Phase 1B. There are nearly 4 million adults who fall into this bracket. As of January 12, Texas had just over 2 million doses of the vaccine, according to the state’s COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard.

In the first week, on December 14, the state allocated 224,250 doses to 110 providers. In the second week, on December 21, approximately 620,000 doses of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines were allocated to more than 1,100 providers in 185 counties. These vaccines were intended for people in phase 1A, mainly doctors and health workers. By week three, December 28, 257,000 doses had been delivered to more than 350 out of 94 providers, and an additional 121,875 doses of Pfizer to long-term care facilities. At this point, a total of 1.2 million doses have been administered to 199 counties.

As of January 4, more than 325,000 first doses had been allocated to nearly 950 providers in 158 counties, of which 121,875 doses went to pharmacies and long-term care facilities. About 1.5 million doses reached 214 counties.

In week 5 on January 11, approximately 234 providers received the first doses and approximately 500,000 seconds for those vaccinated weeks ago. At this point, the vaccine has been administered to residents of 254 counties in Texas.

The state estimates that the vaccines will be available to the general public in the spring.

decision

Mostly true.

Texas reports some of the best vaccine delivery numbers in the country. For the state with the second largest population, its deployment has been successful so far.