The Texas Department of State Health Services is hosting a vaccine outreach event Thursday evening in Fort Worth. DSHS is working with local organizations across the state to increase the vaccination rate.
From 4-8 p.m. Thursday, DSHS has a "COVID-19 vaccine outreach display" in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart at I-30 and Eastchase Parkway. The display includes a 16-foot video board with information about the vaccine and its effectiveness. According to DSHS, the board will explain:
The vaccines were tested in clinical trials with diverse races and ethnicities. The vaccines are working! Vaccines available from all manufacturers are highly effective in preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death. The number of people in the hospital with COVID-19 has fallen by more than 75 percent since January.The vaccine will help you to get your day-to-day life back to normal, so you can do the things you love knowing you're protected.DSHS is also working with community organizations to reach people who may have questions about the vaccine.
"It's been a rough year for us for sure," says Sharon Davis, chief medical officer of Los Barrios Unidos Community Clinic. "Many of us have lost loved ones or had friends who've been in the hospital with COVID."
"We know the vaccines will help keep people out of the hospital," says the clinic's chief executive officer, Leonor Marquez.
Thursday, the Department of State Health Services said 2,745 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 across Texas, down from a high of more than 14,000 in January. In North Texas, hospitals had 485 COVID-19 patients, down from more than 4,000 in the middle of January.
"When people get their COVID vaccine, they will be helping us get back to normal," Marquez says. "We can get back to school, back to work, back to church and back to family gatherings."
Friday, DSHS will be in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Mineral Wells at 601 FM 1821 from 4-8 p.m.
Saturday, the video board will be at Spring Market in Anson, north of Abilene, at 122 Commercial Ave, Anson, TX 79501 from 12-4 p.m. DSHS will be at a Wal-Mart in Lubbock Sunday.
