Texas to receive 1.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine this month

Update at 6.15 p.m .: to include more details on planned shipments.

AUSTIN – Texas will receive 1.4 million initial doses of COVID-19 vaccines later this month, Governor Greg Abbott said on Wednesday.

Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have allocated 1.4 million doses to Texas for the month of December, Abbott said. About 224,000 doses are expected to arrive the week of December 14 and are expected to be delivered mainly to hospitals, so that frontline healthcare professionals and other hospital workers who come into contact with hospital patients can be vaccinated.

Larger shipments are expected to follow in the week of December 21, assuming a second vaccine maker obtains federal emergency clearance by then.

And an increase in allocations is expected in January and the following months, Abbott said in a written statement.

“The state of Texas is already ready for the arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine and will quickly distribute these vaccines to Texans who voluntarily choose to be vaccinated,” he said. “While waiting for the first shipment of these vaccines, we will work with communities to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”

The 1.4 million doses would be the first of two injections for 1.4 million Texans, with a vaccine for the second round of vaccines for the first recipients arriving in January, according to the Department of Health Services spokesperson d ‘State Chris Van Deusen.

Last week, a group advising state health commissioner John Hellerstedt identified around 1.6 million healthcare workers who will be the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Therefore, the initial CDC allowance would be sufficient to cover almost 88% of the workers in the hospital, nursing home, emergency medical services, home health, outpatient and hospital care. community pharmacy that meet the definition of a health worker by the Expert Panel on Vaccine Allocation. The same goes for school nurses and people who work for health services and other entities who have agreed to receive and administer the COVID-19 vaccine.

The first week shipment is expected to consist of vaccines created by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, Van Deusen said. Moderna Inc.’s vaccine is expected to go into production and distribution almost as quickly.

“If the schedule goes as planned and both vaccines are allowed, it would only be the Pfizer vaccine the first week, then Pfizer and Moderna the following weeks,” Van Deusen said.

As of Monday, more than 4,100 health care providers and institutions in 227 of the state’s 254 counties had signed up to receive vaccine shipments and administer vaccines.

In addition to drugstore chain locations, that means there will be at least 6,600 sites across Texas where medical professionals give injections, Van Deusen said at the time. Many drugstore chains, including grocery stores with pharmacies, will receive mailings from the federal government that are separate from those going to the state health department.

In the first few weeks of distribution, the state’s health department will make some of its decisions based on the size of a hospital or other facility – given that Pfizer will ship in batches of 975 doses, while that Moderna puts 100 doses in a batch, Van Dit Deusen. For example, a single batch of Pfizer would be enough to deliver initial injections in a hospital with around 1,000 employees, he said.

In later phases, the state plans to send vaccines to doctors’ offices, pharmacies and other establishments that have volunteered to receive and administer the vaccines, Van Deusen said.

Texans should feel free to ask the vaccinator what company they are getting, he said.

“Everyone’s going to have a card, like a physical shot record basically, that tells them, you’ve got that maker, that lot number. You know, come back in three or four weeks, depending on what vaccine you need for your second dose, ”Van Deusen explained.

The state will not notify individuals when they are eligible for vaccination, he said.

But the state will run public service announcements and use other means to educate people about priority populations and what’s going on, he said.

Doctors and other professionals who traditionally administer regular flu shots are likely to reach out to their patients and clients, Van Deusen noted.

Vaccine distribution system

Last week, the state’s Expert Panel on Vaccine Allocation, which includes lawmakers, medical academics, public health experts and other officials, recommended seven standards that should guide the distribution.

On Tuesday, the Federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended that the CDC place residents of nursing homes and residents of other long-term care facilities on the frontline to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, as well as health workers.

Van Deusen said he expects the state panel, which met on Tuesday and meets again on Thursday, to discuss advice from the federal advisory committee on transferring long-care residents duration in the very first group of vaccinees.

“I don’t know what they’re going to do about it, … but it’s possible,” he said.

While Abbott’s statement did not specify which company the vaccine would arrive in Texas first, Van Deusen said it would most likely be Pfizer and BioNTech’s.

Their is furthest along in obtaining emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, he noted.

Moderna’s vaccine, which closely follows Pfizer’s in obtaining this emergency FDA approval, could be among the shipments Texas will receive in the week of Dec. 21, Van Deusen said.

The Pfizer / BioNTech product will be discussed next week by a group of external experts advising the FDA, while Moderna will be discussed by the same group the following week. AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford also reported favorable clinical trial results for their new vaccine.

In each case, the vaccination would require two doses. With Pfizer, doses should be given three weeks apart, Van Deusen said. With Moderna and the Oxford-AstraZeneca group’s vaccines, the second injections come four weeks after the first, he said. A vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson would only require one vaccine, he noted.

Pfizer’s vaccine should be stored at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit.

“It’s going to come on dry ice and the federal government is going to send the first dry ice replenishment next door,” Van Deusen said. “So it’ll be good for up to five days with what [vaccinators] get – even without, you know the super cold freezer. And then they can replenish that “with dry ice every five days for up to 30 days,” he said.

Moderna’s vaccine, however, does not need super-cold storage.

“It ships frozen and can be stored in the refrigerator for 30 days,” Van Deusen explained.

Companies such as Pfizer and Moderna are making doses, but it could take several months to make enough to vaccinate the general population. President Donald Trump’s administration has accelerated vaccine development by some manufacturers through Operation Warp Speed.