State health officials on Saturday announced 79 button suppliers who are expected to receive raffles of COVID-19 vaccines this week, including newly designated hubs in some suburbs of Houston.
The hub providers include two in Galveston County, one each in Fort Bend County, Montgomery County and Liberty County and six in Harris County, according to a list of hubs meant to focus on mass vaccination efforts. Officials plan to distribute 333,650 first-dose COVID-19 vaccines to 260 providers across the state. In addition, the state will order about 500,000 doses, which is expected to be the second dose for people who received their first admission a few weeks ago.
Earlier this month, the three hubs of the Houston region were all in Harris County, causing officials in some surrounding counties to fear they had been forgotten. The Texas Department of Health Services said earlier that more hubs are likely to be added, but that the biggest obstacle is the shortage of vaccines.
“In the past week, Texas has become the first state to administer 1 million doses of vaccine, and vaccine has been administered to residents of all 254 provinces,” state health officials said as they announced the distribution of the week’s doses. “The vaccine remains limited, based on the ability of the manufacturers to manufacture it, so it will take time before Texas receives enough vaccine for all the people in the population group who want to be vaccinated.”
The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston welcomes the news that they need to become a hub.
“We are delighted to receive this designation and look forward to working with our partners in the region to vaccinate our patients and our community as soon as stock for massive vaccination efforts is received,” UTMB said in a statement on its website. said. “We continue to focus on vaccinating as many people as possible as soon as possible, based on the available supplies and guidelines.”