The Houston area will receive an influx of COVID-19 vaccine doses this week

The Greater Houston area will receive an influx of more than 62,000 COVID-19 vaccines this week, driven by an increase in the number of vaccines offered to the state by the federal government and large allocations to suppliers in the Houston area, state officials said Friday.

“The increase in the number of vaccines available is due to two factors: a 30% increase in the number of Modern doses offered to the state by the federal government and a single return of 126,750 doses of Pfizer vaccine that Texas was forced to reserve for the pharmaceutical partnership. for the long-term care program, ”state health officials said in a statement. “The program overestimated the amount of vaccine needed, so the doses are returned to the states.”

The Texas Department of Health said it allocates long-term care doses to providers in counties where “allocations were significantly lower than their share of the population, especially in the suburban areas of Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. ”

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In total, Texas will receive 520,425 first doses of COVID-19 vaccine from the federal government for the week of February 1. More than 62,000 of these doses will be given to suppliers in the Greater Houston area, including Harris, Fort Bend, Liberty, Montgomery County, Chambers and Galveston. Harris County Public Health and the Houston Department of Public Health are scheduled to receive 9,000 vaccinations each.

In addition to the first doses to come, the state has ordered 188,225 doses for the second dose for people first vaccinated a few weeks ago.

Currently, Texans are eligible for the vaccine only if they are primary care workers, nursing home residents 65 years of age or older, or have a medical condition that puts them at higher risk of hospitalization and death. because of COVID-19.

“The vaccine remains limited by the ability of manufacturers to produce it, so it will take a long time for Texas to receive enough vaccine for all people in priority populations who want to be vaccinated,” state health officials said in a statement. “Currently, there is not enough vaccine to provide every vaccine provider every week.”

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As of Friday, Texas providers have administered nearly 2.2 million doses of the vaccine. Over 1.75 million people received at least one dose and over 410,000 received both doses.