For the second time in the past three weeks, Denton County has been dropped from the COVID-19 vaccine list in Texas, with the delivery of more than 25,000 first doses from last week squeezed between two weeks, when the Department of Public Health only second doses received clinics at Texas Motor Speedway.
The first week without allocation of the first dose from the state health department was the week of March 22, when public health care in Denton County received no vaccines, after consistently taking most of all the other registered centers of the state. got. Jennifer Rainey, spokeswoman for the DCPH, said at the time that the department had enough vaccines on hand to serve its clinics for the week, adding that the department hoped it would be one-time.
Last week, the province’s typical allocation – 25,740 doses of Pfizer – returned when the province began vaccinating all adults in Texas after the extensions of fitness. While suppliers are constantly receiving two-dose deliveries that do not appear in the state’s weekly awards document, DCPH sent again this week without a first dose.
Matt Richardson, director of the DCPH, addressed the lack of allocation at the commissioner’s meeting in Denton County on Tuesday, which he also did not address for the first time. Before reaching the meeting, Rainey only said that “DCPH has a vaccine on hand to use for the first and second dose this week.”
Rainey did not specify whether DCPH expects a state grant next week, and whether it will need a new grant to offer a full vaccination clinic. Richardson did confirm at Tuesday’s meeting that the department would send out appointments for the coming week.
“We would very much like to invite new appointments for next week,” Richardson said. ‘We’re done with our appointment slots for this week, so we have a full lead at TMS [Tuesday] until Friday. ”
According to DCPH’s online vaccination tracker, the department was forced to invite place 453 002 on its waiting list, with a total of 485 759 people. These numbers are updated every Monday morning, meaning about 25,000 Texas residents have registered on the county’s list since last week. According to Richardson, about 2,000 more signed up between Monday and Tuesday’s meeting.
Not everyone who registers for a vaccine in the province will remain on the waiting list, as many have received shots from other providers and then removed themselves from the queue of the country. Nevertheless, Richardson said the line currently stands at about 32,000 individuals who have yet to receive their first dose – a number that obscures the department’s standard allocation of 25 740 Pfizer shots.
Numerous providers in Denton County received shots this week, including several pharmacies in the Tom Thumb and Walgreens chain, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. The largest awards were given to Carrollton Regional Medical Center (1,000 Johnson & Johnson doses) and Driven MD PLLC in Frisco (1,000 Modern doses).
Richardson’s review of the pandemic itself was once again positive, with active virus cases continuing to decline, and other important hospitalization and case statistics also stagnated or improved. However, he addressed the issue of COVID-19 variants.
Richardson’s most important variant of the state is one first discovered in the United Kingdom, formally called the B.1.1.7 variant. It was first discovered in Denton in early February, although he said the current vaccines are effective against it.
“The interesting part of the variant is that it’s a little less virulent, so a little less lethal, which is good news,” Richardson said. ‘The bad news is that it’s a little easier to catch up. So one of the things we want to keep doing is to emphasize the need for vaccination. ”