Texas to get more vaccine doses than expected this week

HOUSTON Texas was expected to receive more than 520,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine this week, more than state officials said they originally expected to receive

Texas Department of State Health Services officials said the dose increase is due to two factors: a 30% increase in the Moderna vaccine provided by the federal government and a one-time return of 126,750 doses of the Pfizer vaccine that Texas. needed to set aside for a federal program to vaccinate residents and staff in long-term care facilities.

The health department said these returned doses will be given to counties where allocations are significantly lower than their proportions of the population, particularly in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston suburbs.

The Houston Health Department has said it will focus its vaccination allocation this week on people at highest risk of serious illness and those in vulnerable communities.

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“We know it’s important to vaccinate the people who are most vulnerable, and they should be among the first to get an injection, especially when supplies are scarce,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner.

According to the COVID Tracking Project, the state has received nearly 2.9 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

According to the state health department, suppliers in Texas have administered nearly 2.3 million doses of vaccine. More than 1.8 million people have received at least one dose and more than 448,000 have been fully vaccinated.

On Sunday, health officials in Texas reported 11,155 new and probable cases of coronavirus and 171 more deaths from the disease caused by the virus.

According to the Texas Health Department, there have been nearly 2.1 million virus cases and 36,491 deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic began.

Hospital admissions to the state continued to decline, with 11,220 patients reported Sunday. That’s down from a maximum of 14,218 on January 11.