Since December 2020, the city of Amarillo has given thousands of members of the community, as well as some who live in the outer region and surrounding states, COVID-19 vaccines.
As the pandemic progressed, the city’s public health department has had to go through a number of changes, reaching various communities through its vaccination clinic at the Amarillo Civic Center Complex, as well as mobile clinics at various community centers and churches.
But public health department officials are having to reach people in other ways to get the word out about vaccines, with approximately 35 to 37% of the community being vaccinated. Lately, the public health department’s mobile vaccination clinics have been set up at various community events like the Juneteenth Parade and High Noon on the Square as well as at businesses, like Bell Helicopter, to make it easier for individuals to access vaccines.
With the city of Amarillo releasing its last COVID-19 report card May 21, the public health department is now exclusively releasing data for Potter and Randall counties on its COVID-19 dashboard on the Amarillo Alerts website.
Since May 21, Potter and Randall counties have seen an increase of 63 COVID-19 cases, bringing the area’s total to 34,448 since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
Of the total, 419 COVID-19 cases were reported as active as of Thursday, a decrease of 77 net active cases from May 21. There have been 33,272 reported COVID-19 recoveries, an increase of 140 recoveries from May 21. There have been 757 reported deaths related to the virus, which is no change from May 21.
Officials from the United Way of Amarillo and Canyon hosted a gathering of community leaders to go over the organization s 2020-21 Community Status Report at Central Church of Christ on Wednesday.
In the report, United Way officials put together data of area demographics and more specific information about education, income, health as well as vulnerable populations within Potter and Randall counties.
Katie Noffsker, executive director, said the organization began doing this in 2014 to provide a resource, giving businesses, nonprofits and community members basic data so they can use it for grant writing as well as program development to solve some of the community’s biggest needs.
Officials with the city of Amarillo’s public health department announced during Tuesday’s regular meeting of the city council that the city plans to offer the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to those between the ages of 12 and 17, upon the approval by a committee with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) later this week.
This came after the department reported an increase of 28 COVID-19 cases from Monday in Tuesday s COVID-19 report card, bringing the area s total to 34,201 cases from the start of the pandemic. Out of the total, 475 are currently active, which is an increase of 23 net active cases from Monday.