On Monday, Mayor Sylvester Turner, along with medical health experts, held a newsletter to provide an update on the city’s response to the virus and the rollout of the vaccine.
According to Turner, the city’s health department received 41,950 initial COVID-19 vaccine doses and has administered 33,839 first doses so far. When it comes to second doses, the Houston Health Department has received 18,600 doses and administered 2,300. He added that the health department has scheduled 971 appointments this week for people to receive their second dose of vaccine.
The briefing comes days after a partnership with Houston’s HOPE Clinic helped vaccinate high-risk, low-income residents. According to Turner, the clinic planned to provide 500 doses of the vaccine on Saturday over the weekend. By noon, 250 of those doses had been distributed.
SEE ALSO: Houston’s HOPE Clinic Vaccinates Those Who Need Them Most
Thousands of doses have been given in the city, despite some problems with booking recently. Hundreds of people were sent home disappointed earlier this month after the Houston Health Department announced that COVID-19 vaccine doses had run out on the public megasite in Minute Maid Park.
During Monday’s briefing, Turner said their strategy will be to continue to focus on delivering the vaccines to high-risk, low-income communities.
As demand continues to outpace supply, Stephen L. Williams, director of the Houston Health Department, said they expect things to get better as more vaccine doses emerge.
“This week, our health department is distributing more than 9.00 first doses to the most vulnerable. We are prioritizing approximately 5,300 doses for our regional aging service, 2,400 for health care providers in vulnerable communities and 1,300 for previously scheduled appointments,” he says. said.
SEE ALSO: Action 13: Connecting Your COVID-19 Vaccine Questions to Answers
Williams added that the health department will be pausing additions to the waiting list until further notice. The reason behind this is that they are working to set up a link that will allow people to start scheduling their own appointments for second doses, which could be announced as early as Tuesday.
As more and more people got the vaccine, Turner reminded the public to help prevent the virus from spreading.
“The focus on vaccines does not mean that we can no longer focus on prevention and testing,” said Turner. “I want to remind people that the virus is still very present in our community.”
Turner announced Monday that the Houston Health Department reported 1,089 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases for the city of Houston to 158,751.
According to Dr. David Persse of the health department of the City of Houston, data from the Texas Medical Center showed that hospital admissions have leveled off and are declining slightly. He believes the city may be at the beginning of the flip side of the second wave, but he also urged people not to be on their guard.
“Now is not the time to take our foot off the brakes, we need to keep our masks at a social distance, wash your hands and get tested regularly,” Persse said.
Persse also encourages people who have received their COVID-19 vaccine dose to get tested for the virus after all, as research did not show whether people who were vaccinated still got sick.
“This is because we know that studies that have been done on the efficacy of the vaccine look for people who had clinical disease, that they went to their doctor and were eventually diagnosed with COVID-19 because they were symptomatic and sick,” Persse said. “The studies did not look at whether people who were vaccinated were still getting the virus and therefore were able to spread it, but had no symptoms. So we don’t know yet. Those studies are currently underway. You need to go ahead and go. get tested regularly even if you have no symptoms. “
The latest mask mandate, in which the CDC stated that travelers must wear masks on all modes of public transportation, was also discussed at Monday’s conference. According to Turner, violators could be subject to civil penalties for refusing to obey the mandate.
SEE ALSO: CDC Says Travelers Must Wear Masks on All Modes of Public Transportation to Slow Spread of COVID-19
“The mandate is enforced by the Houston Airport System. All people at our airports over the age of two must wear a face covering that goes over your nose and mouth,” Turner said. “The federal mandate is needed to slow the spread of COVID-19. Anyone who refuses to abide by this federal mandate could face civil penalties, including immediate escort from the airport.”
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