In this document

How Vaccine Distribution is planned in Texas

The information below is provided by the Texas Department of Health

“All providers that have received COVID-19 vaccine must immediately vaccinate healthcare workers, Texans over the age of 65, and people with medical conditions that put them at a greater risk of severe disease or death from COVID-19. No vaccine should be kept in reserve.”

DSHS Commissioner John Hellerstedt, M.D.

Category 1A

If you are a Front-line healthcare worker or resident of a long-term care facility, since 14 December 2020, you are eligible to receive the vaccine. If you are a healthcare worker, contact your employer. If you are a long-term care resident, contact your caretaker.

Many of the people included in this category have already received their first doses of vaccine.

Category 1B includes

• People 65 years of age and older
• People 16 years of age and older with at least one chronic medical condition that puts them at increased risk for severe illness from the virus that causes COVID-19, such as but not limited to:
• Cancer
• Chronic kidney disease
• COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)
• Heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies
• Solid-organ transplantation
• Obesity and severe obesity (body mass index of 30 kg/m2 or higher)
• Pregnancy
• Sickle cell disease
• Type 2 diabetes mellitus

What do the numbers look like for Texas?

How many people are in the queue ahead of you? We used the Vaccine Allocation Planner for COVID-19 to check on the data held for Texas. You can use the tool too, it’s an open resource to model vaccine distribution in US populations.

According to the tool, and it’s worthwhile pointing out (screenshot below) that they do not include older people in Cat 1B unless they reside in care homes, there are 4,510,487 ahead of you. The problem now is that there is no vaccine available.

H-E-B Pharmacies had been focusing solely on delivering vaccinations to healthcare workers (28000 to date) and intends to shift its focus to the public next. They have the capacity to vaccinate 100 000 Texans a week, The problem, though is that they don’t have any vaccines to vaccinate with.

Texas has allocated approximately 1.2 million doses to providers across the country so far, an iffy figure based on numerous revisions and the problem doesn’t stop there. Part of the issue lies with the tracking system ImmTrac2, built to keep record of how many people have been vaccinated.

The reporting tool reported only 262 000 people as being vaccinated last week, falling terribly short of actual vaccinations. Health officials are trying to fix data entry errors in the system, which likely resulted in a major overestimation of available doses. According to an article from the Texas Tribune;

“More vaccine had been administered than was being revealed by the registry system,” Howard told The Texas Tribune. “I think [the decision to allow the 1B group to get vaccinated] was done before we had all the information we probably should’ve had, because there wasn’t the capacity to meet that new edict.”

Williams, of the Texas Hospital Association, said members of her association reported similar problems.

“With regard to state data on administered doses, we have no certainty it is accurate at this point in time,” she said. “The number of doses administered is higher than what’s indicated.”

Technical errors are just one facet of Texas’ vaccine struggles. Shipments from the federal government, which distributes doses of the vaccine to providers, have arrived damaged or late, Howard said. In some cases, expected distributions never arrived.

Vaccine Provider Location Map

Please visit the Texas COVID-19 Vaccine Provider Locations map (shown below) to see vaccine providers near you. Do not show up at a hospital or clinic looking for the vaccine as you know now they aren’t there yet., instead please check their website for information about vaccine availability. Call the DSHS if their website doesn’t answer your questions. Dial 2‑1‑1, then choose Option 6.Hours: 24/7

Local Vaccination resources in Texas

We’re still busy collecting this data

Information for Vaccine Providers in Texas

On the list and not sure what happens next or when you’ll be receiving your stocks of the vaccine? Check the information page for providers by the Texas Department of Health. There is also a link for an excel spreadsheet that shows the actual daily distribution of vaccines in Texas and clicking this link will download the spreadsheet

CDC Covid Vaccine Information

• COVID-19 Vaccines and Allergic Reactions
• What to Expect after Getting a COVID-19 Vaccine
• Ensuring the Safety of COVID-19 Vaccines in the United States
• Reporting an Adverse Effect to a Covid-19 or other Vaccine
• General Vaccine Safety Main page

FDA Covid Vaccine Information

• COVID-19 Vaccines (general overview and links)
• Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine
• Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine
• Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

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