A lot more Covid 19 vaccine is headed to Texas this week
Last week 224,250 doses of the Pfizer vaccine were delivered. Those were given mostly to hospital staff that have direct contact with Covid-19 patients. This week Texas should get 620 thousand doses, mostly of the new Moderna shot.
The Texas Department of State Health Services is instructing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ship the vaccines to over 1,100 providers in 185 Texas counties.
460,500 doses will be the Moderna shot and 159,900 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. They'll be used on front-line health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities. This includes healthcare workers in clinics, doctor's offices, pharmacists and EMS providers. Chris Van Deusen with the Texas Department of State Health Services says it will go to "places like the state supported living centers, Texas Department of Criminal Justice facilities where some medical staff are working." This population is part of the phase 1A group.
He says it's a huge increase. "I don't expect it to continue on that trajectory. We will kind of settle into a rhythm that's less than that. We're going to get these allocations every week from the CDC."
He says they plan to start the federal long-term care pharmacy partnership the week of the 28th. "That is where some of the national pharmacy chains like CVS and Walgreens are actually going to be going out to long term care facilities and vaccinating residents and staff on site. We are starting to set aside some doses, the Pfizer doses for that."
He notes Texas will be in this phase 1A for at least a few weeks. "I would say into January, perhaps early February and things will broaden out to other individuals after that."
