Tarrant County asks for more COVID-19 vaccines as it runs through registration list
Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley is asking the state for more coronavirus vaccines so the county hubs can run at full capacity.
As of Wednesday, Tarrant County Public Health, its partners and other providers have administered 507,903 doses. Eighty-nine percent of the county’s 534,000 eligible registrants have received a first dose. About 639,000 have registered for a vaccine with the county.
Whitley said the county can administer at least 100,000 doses a week. Some of the county’s sites run for half days only because there aren’t enough vaccines. Vinny Taneja, the county’s public health director, said Public Health on its own does about a quarter of its full capacity.
“We’re distributing the vaccines as quickly as they get them to us,” Whitley said.
The county’s vaccine hub providers, which includes Public Health, received 26,220 first doses to distribute this week. About 10,000 doses were given to other Tarrant County providers that aren’t hubs.
Texas Department of State Health Services and the Expert Vaccine Allocation Panel try to allocate doses roughly proportional to the county population, a department spokesperson said.
This week, the state received about 30% fewer doses from the federal government, the spokesperson said. The reduction is due to the federally funded sites in Tarrant, Dallas and Harris Counties wrapping up and fewer Johnson & Johnson vaccines being allocated because it is still in production.
