The state of Texas will receive 332,750 first doses of COVID-19 vaccine from the federal government next week, the Texas Department of State Health Services announced.
The Texas Department of State Health Services has instructed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ship those doses to 212 providers across Texas, including 82 hub providers that will focus on larger community vaccination efforts.
The added hub locations for next week are in Burnet, Dallas, Gregg, Montgomery and Navarro counties, according to DSHS.
This also includes 130 additional providers as Texas continues to vaccinate health care workers, residents of long-term care facilities, people 65 and older and those with medical conditions that put them at greater risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19.
In addition to the first doses, the state said they are ordering 216,350 doses intended as the second dose for people first vaccinated a few weeks ago.
"DSHS automatically allocates second doses to providers based on the number of first doses they received, so people should be able to return to the same provider to receive their second dose," DSHS said.
Texas providers have administered more than 1.6 million doses of vaccine, according to DSHS. 1.37 million people have received at least one dose, and more than 228,000 have been fully vaccinated.
Providers in seven new counties will receive vaccine, bringing the total number of counties where vaccine has been distributed to 233.
People are not required to be vaccinated in their county of residence, and vaccine has been administered to residents of all 254 counties, according to DSHS.
"Vaccine remains limited based on the capacity of the manufacturers to produce it, so it will take time for Texas to receive enough vaccine for all the people in the priority populations who want to be vaccinated," DSHS said in a news release. "Currently, there is not enough vaccine to supply every provider with vaccine every week. The amount of vaccine provided to Texas is expected to remain steady for the next few weeks."
Additional vaccines are in clinical trials, and Johnson & Johnson could request authorization for its vaccine from the Food and Drug Administration as early as next month, according to DSHS.
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