Tarrant County asks state to include teachers in first round of COVID-19 vaccinations
Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley wants teachers and school staff to be among the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine next week when the first doses are expected to arrive in Tarrant County.
Tarrant County hospitals could receive more than 18,500 doses of the vaccine starting the week of Dec. 14. Whitley said hospital staff will get vaccinated, but he along with the rest of the Commissioners Court have asked the state to allocate vaccinations for teachers and school staff.
“We want kids back in school and you can’t have them there without having teachers,” Whitley said. “That’s why it’s so critical to allow educators to be a part of that first round.”
This comes after Superintendent Kent P. Scribner, representing both the Fort Worth school district and in his capacity as chair of the Texas Urban Council of Superintendents, asked Gov. Greg Abbott to make teachers among the first to receive the vaccine.
The opening of schools has been a debate across the county as both parents and teachers have voiced concerns about the safety of in-person learning. In Fort Worth, parents can either send their kids to school or opt for online learning. Having a vaccine available for teachers from the get-go would allow in-person to continue safely and get more kids back in school, Whitley said.
“We have to support [our educators] to keep the future open to our children,” the commissioners wrote to Abbott.
Abbott released a distribution plan for the vaccine on Nov. 23 and outlined that allocations throughout the state would be dependent on protecting health care workers, front-line workers and vulnerable populations.
Vinny Taneja, the county’s public health director, said after the first allocations come in next week, he expects weekly allocation of the vaccine to be made available to hospitals. The vaccine most likely won’t be available to the general public until at least March, he said. The county has started to prepare for mass distribution with a floor being redone as a storage room with five freezers and five refrigerators.
The Food and Drug Administration needs to approve the vaccines before hospitals can start administering them, he said. He expects approval within the week, but anything can change.
But this is no time to relax, Taneja said.
The vaccine coming doesn’t mean people can tear off their masks and go back to normal, Taneja said. He believes there won’t be a true normal until late 2021, as it will take a while to vaccinate everyone.
This story was originally published December 8, 2020 at 5:37 PM.
