BRAZOS VALLEY, TX — On March 18, Governor Greg Abbott announced that the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM), the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), and the Texas Military Department (TMD) have confirmed 28 participating counties for the third week of the Save Our Seniors initiative.
This third round will now include the Brazos Valley counties of Houston, Grimes, Lee, Leon, Madison, and Trinity. Launched back in February, the program is designed to ensure more Texas seniors get vaccinated.
"The continued expansion of our Save Our Seniors initiative is protecting elderly Texans from COVID-19 and ramping up our vaccination efforts across the state," said Governor Abbott in a press release. "As we head into the third week of this program, I thank our state and local partners for making this initiative a continued success as we vaccinate seniors and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in our communities."
This week, the state is reporting that over 18,000 vaccines will be allocated for this new initiative; the likes of which use state and local resources to engage with Texans 65 and older or who are home-bound. According to the press release, TDEM, and TMD are working to set up more drive-through vaccine clinics and direct vaccine administering to home-bound seniors.
According to the press release, counties and cities were selected based on recent data given by DSHS, relating to the following factors:
- The state looked at the number of approved providers serving the area;
- The state took into account total allocations over the previous 12 weeks;
- The state utilized data showing the least vaccinated counties for both 65+ and 75+ administered doses;
- The state focused on allocating vaccine equitably across the state.