The nodes can better streamline the state’s distribution process, which has been labeled confusing and unfair. (Credit to Adobe Stock)
According to a press release from the Texas Department of State Health Services, large-scale “vaccination centers” statewide are expected to begin administering COVID-19 vaccine doses the week of Jan. 11.
Texas is expected to receive an additional 200,000 vaccine doses from the federal government next week and will divert most of its allocation to major providers who plan to vaccinate at least 100,000 people in total, according to the Jan. 7 release of DSHS.
Providers included in the program include 18 counties in the state, with several hubs operating in hard-hit counties.
Harris and Dallas Counties will each have three hub locations, while Bexar, El Paso, Hidalgo, McLennan, Smith and Tarrant Counties will each have two. The remaining 10 hubs are spread across the state.
Vaccination appointments will be available to individuals identified in Phase 1A and 1B, including health professionals, those 65 and older, and those 16 and older with high-risk medical conditions. Next week will also be the last week that the state must reserve doses to vaccinate residents and staff of long-term care facilities, the DSHS said.
To make an appointment, individuals can visit the website of the DSHS vaccine hub to find their nearest provider and call or register online. Residents are encouraged to call their hub before visiting the site as walk-in appointments may not be available.
The first hub allocation includes 38,045 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 120,800 doses of the Moderna vaccine for use as first doses. An additional 121,875 doses were assigned to the federal pharmacy / long-term care partnership.
Distribution concerns and limited supply
The vaccine hubs are intended to provide easily identifiable locations and an easy way to register for vaccination, the DSHS said.
Officials across the state have voiced concerns about the current distribution process and ambiguity about how vaccination will be prioritized.
For example, although Texas has expanded distribution to individuals in Stage 1B – people 65 and older and people with high-risk medical conditions – Austin Public Health representatives said on Jan. 5 that their region has not had enough doses to cover all of their health care workers to be covered, who are classified as phase 1A.
Six black elected officials in Travis County have expressed concerns about the approach to the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine in the Greater Austin area, highlighting racial and regional disparities with the distribution of the vaccine.
On January 6, 38 Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives wrote a letter to Governor Greg Abbott, calling for better information about how vaccine prioritization and distribution decisions are made.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Texas has received 1.8 million doses of the vaccine as of January 10, with 618,298 first doses delivered.
As supply increases in the coming months and vaccines become widely available to the general public, supply could exceed demand, according to the DSHS.
Eva Vigh, Olivia Aldridge, Kelsey Thompson and Amy Rae Dadamo contributed to this report.