HOUSTON – The Texas Department of State Health Services surveyed vaccine providers about their capacity to operate large community vaccination sites this week and have provided a list of three vaccine hubs in the Houston area.
Large and small sites around Texas will receive a total of about 200,000 doses of vaccine this week. This will be the last week the state is required to reserve doses to vaccinate residents and staff of long-term care facilities under the federal pharmacy-LTC partnership, freeing up more vaccines for use in other settings in the future.
Breakdown
The hub providers in Texas will receive 158,825 doses of vaccine based on the number of people each provider estimated it could serve in a week. An additional 38,300 doses will go to other providers to continue vaccination in communities statewide. Providers in 104 counties will receive vaccine shipments this week, bringing the cumulative number of counties to 222.
The vaccine has been administered to residents of all 254 Texas counties, DSHS said.
In addition to the vaccines mentioned above, Texas will reserve 121,875 doses for the federal Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care program. Texas providers will also receive about 500,000 doses intended as the second dose for people first vaccinated a few weeks ago, health officials said. The vaccine remains limited based on the capacity of the manufacturers to produce it, so it will take time for Texas to receive enough vaccine for all the people in the priority populations, DSHS said.
The supply is expected to increase in the upcoming months.
Here are the Houston-area hubs
The hubs in the Houston area are as follows:
- Harris County Public Health- 832-927-8787, https://vacstrac.hctx.net
- Houston Health Department- https://houstonemergency.org/covid19/
- Houston Methodist Hospital- https://www.houstonmethodist.org/coronavirus/vaccine-updates/
People can find more information on the COVID-19 vaccine and its availability at dshs.texas.gov/coronavirus/immunize/vaccine.aspx.