Governor Greg Abbott has announced the mass vaccination hubs are officially coming to DFW and Houston.
FEMA has begun work with the Texas Division of Emergency Management to open "mass community vaccination sites" in North Texas and Houston. FEMA hopes to begin vaccinations at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Fair Park in Dallas, and NRG Stadium in Houston the week of February 22.
"Together, these sites will be capable of administering more than 10,000 shots in arms a day," says White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients.
Zients says FEMA will run the sites and bring its own supply of the vaccine, separate from the allotment given to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
"We are deploying federal teams immediately to work hand-in-hand with the state and local jurisdictions," Zients says.
"These mass community sites will allow us to expand access to COVID-19 vaccinations in underserved communities and help us mitigate the spread of the virus," Governor Greg Abbott wrote in a statement. "Thank you to our partners at FEMA for working with the State of Texas to establish these vaccination sites and help us protect our most vulnerable."
Abbott's office says the three sites are part of a federal pilot project "to vaccinate more Texans in an efficient, effective, and equitable manner, with an explicit focus on making sure that communities with a high risk of COVID-19 exposure and infection are not left behind. "
Abbott's office says the state will monitor vaccination use at each site and make "real-time decisions" on how to use the rest of the vaccine available to DSHS.
This week, DSHS received 401,750 first doses of the vaccine and ordered 330,925 second doses. The vaccine was shipped to 358 providers across the state, including 85 "hubs". Through Tuesday, the Texas Department of State Health Services says 2,549,120 people had received one dose of the vaccine; 842,870 were fully vaccinated.