Governor Greg Abbott, the Texas Division of Emergency (TDEM), the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), and the Texas Military Department (TMD) have announced an additional 34 counties participating in the second week of the Save Our Seniors COVID-19 vaccine initiative.
Leon and Lampasas are listed among the counties.
During the first week of the initiative, the Governor announced 26 participating counties.
The Governor announced the Save Our Seniors program in Corpus Christi last month to provide vaccines to seniors throughout the state.
As part of the statewide Save Our Seniors Initiative, the state deployed more than 1,100 National Guardsmen to assist communities in vaccinating homebound seniors. The guardsmen are broken up into teams that will deploy across the state. Some members of these teams will focus on identifying and registering homebound seniors for the program while others will visit homes and administer vaccines.
According to Governor Abbott, the state has allocated over 10,000 vaccine doses for the second week of the program, which the state will use in partnership with local officials and service organizations to target Texans who are 75 years and older or homebound.
TDEM and TMD will work alongside local jurisdictions to set up a central drive-through vaccine clinic in the community or administer directly to homebound seniors — these decisions will be driven by local officials as they identify vulnerable residents in their communities to participate in this program.
"With the Save Our Seniors initiative, Texas is providing vaccines to seniors across our state who are most at risk from COVID-19," Governor Abbott said. "For the second week of the program, we have allocated over 10,000 vaccines to reach the most vulnerable populations in our communities. I thank the men and women of the National Guard who are carrying out this important mission to protect seniors in need."
Counties participating in the second round of the program are Aransas, Bandera, Bowie, Brooks, Caldwell, Callahan, Coke, Coleman, Dallas, Duval, Henderson, Hockley, Lampasas, Leon, Liberty, Mason, Mitchell, Presidio, Rusk, Sabine, San Patricio, Stephens, Sutton, Titus, Trinity, Val Verde, Van Zandt, Walker, Waller, Webb, Wharton, Willacy, Wilson, Wood.
In coordination with local and state partners, counties and cities have been selected based on recent data provided from DSHS related 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.
