1.9 million Texas healthcare workers and care home residents get COVID vaccine priority

The first shipment of the long-awaited Pfizer COVID vaccine is expected to arrive in Texas early next week, with the first two million doses already spoken.

Approximately 1.6 million healthcare workers and 270,353 people living in nursing homes and long-term care facilities are prioritized, according to the Texas Department of Health Services, and guidelines for first vaccination of the state’s most endangered population Was announced.

Less than 250,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be shipped to approximately 100 hospitals in the state as early as the week of December 14, depending on when the vaccine was approved for use in the United States.

If all goes well, the state expects a significant portion of health care workers and long-term residents to be vaccinated by January 1, said R-Blenheim Senator Royce Colholst.

Governor Greg Abbott said the state expects to receive enough vaccine to inoculate 1.4 million Texas people by the end of the year.

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“There is no doubt that there are a variety of people who are indispensable workers,” DSHS Commissioner John Hellerstett said at a meeting of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee on December 7. “But hospital staff are talking about housekeeping staff, ministers, nutritionists, and everyone else in the environment, not just doctors and nurses, but they are always exposed to work. Whatever impairs our ability, we make them the number one group of people we want to protect. “

According to DSHS spokeswoman Chris Van Dusen, the 109 hospitals to be vaccinated first are honored to use state guidelines.

Currently, Van Deusen said a 17-expert Vaccine Advisory Board is considering who will be vaccinated in the next phase. These numbers could be about 9.5 million Texas people who are considered at risk, and 3.9 million people over the age of 65. Authorities warn that these numbers overlap with adults already in care facilities.

Parliamentarians and DSHS officials provided details of the deployment at this week’s meeting. Already, the state has portals where clinics and other institutions can apply to become designated vaccine providers.

Immelda Garcia, Associate Commissioner for Laboratory and Infectious Disease Services at Health and Human Services, said as of last week, there are more than 7,000 sites that have signed up for vaccination, including a combination of state clinics and federal sites. Said. Includes major pharmacy chains.

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Some of the wide range of healthcare professionals are prioritized according to their level of risk. For example, hospital staff working directly with COVID-19 (doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, administrative staff, other clinical staff, etc.) will first get the initial dose scheduled for early next week. I will.

This is followed by long-term care facilities, long-term care facilities, state-sponsored living center care staff and residents, followed by other medical populations such as outpatients, emergency clinics, and pharmacy staff.

It is still unclear who will be vaccinated after health care workers, critically-risk populations, and people over the age of 65, but those at high risk of getting sick and infected, such as college students and those in prison, Potentially increasing Next, follow the guidelines of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Teachers have not yet been mentioned in hierarchical systems. However, Van Dusen said the expert council is still discussing the eligibility of the next stage of the New Year’s vaccine, taking into account law enforcement agencies and educators. According to the Texas Board of Education, as of the 2019-20th year, the state has 79,024 licensed police officers and approximately 800,078 public school teachers and staff, including school nurses.

The state has designated UT-Austin as a vaccine distributor, and officials said on Tuesday that authorities plan to administer less than 3,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine. However, these doses are also reserved for healthcare professionals, so no one knows when campus students and staff will be vaccinated.

“This is a difficult choice. We don’t have all the vaccines we want to do right away, we have to make some difficult choices,” Hellerstett said.