Texas to receive more doses of the vaccine than expected this week

HOUSTON – Texas is scheduled to receive more than 520,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine this week, more than state officials said they initially expected to receive

Texas State Department of Health officials said the increase in doses was due to two factors: a 30 percent increase in the federal government’s Moderna vaccine and a single return of 126,750 doses of Pfizer vaccine that Texas had to give up. to a federal program that vaccinates residents and staff at long-term care facilities.

The Department of Health said these returned doses would be given to counties where allocations were significantly lower than their share of the population, especially in the suburban areas of Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston.

The Houston Department of Health said this week it will focus its vaccine allocation on people at highest risk for serious illness and those in vulnerable communities.

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“We know it’s important to vaccinate the people who are most vulnerable and should be among the first to receive fires, especially when supplies are low,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner.

The state has received nearly 2.9 million doses of coronavirus vaccine, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

Texas providers have administered nearly 2.3 million doses of the vaccine, according to the state Department of Health. More than 1.8 million people received at least one dose and more than 448,000 were completely vaccinated.

On Sunday, Texas health officials reported 11,155 new and likely cases of coronavirus and another 171 deaths from the disease caused by the virus.

There have been nearly 2.1 million cases of the virus and 36,491 deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic began, according to the Texas Department of Health.

Hospitalizations in the state continued to decline, with 11,220 patients reported on Sunday. It fell from a high of 14,218 on January 11th.