/ Susan Valadez looks at a Texas Department of State Health Services advertisement encouraging people to get the COVID-19 vaccine before she enters a Walmart in Fort Worth on April 30, 2021.
At its peak, the mass COVID-19 vaccination site at the Kelly Reeves Athletic Complex in Williamson County was administering about 4,000 doses per day.
Now it’s half that.
County health officials will close the North Austin drive-thru hub in mid-May, shifting the responsibility to a growing number of doctors, pharmacies, public health offices and other smaller providers who have closer relationships with and easier access to the county’s estimated 200,000 eligible residents who haven’t yet gotten vaccinated.
Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune Susan Valadez looks at a Texas Department of State Health Services advertisement encouraging people to get the COVID-19 vaccine before she enters a Walmart in Fort Worth on April 30.
At its peak, the mass COVID-19 vaccination site at the Kelly Reeves Athletic Complex in Williamson County was administering about 4,000 doses per day.
Now it’s half that.
County health officials will close the North Austin drive-thru hub in mid-May, shifting the responsibility to a growing number of doctors, pharmacies, public health offices and other smaller providers who have closer relationships with and easier access to the county’s estimated 200,000 eligible residents who haven’t yet gotten vaccinated.
A lot of eligible Texas are still unvaccinated, Texas shifts COVID vaccine strategies
Karen Brooks Harper, The Texas Tribune
May 3, 2021
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Now it’s half that.
County health officials will close the North Austin drive-thru hub in mid-May, shifting the responsibility to a growing number of doctors, pharmacies, public health offices and other smaller providers who have closer relationships with and easier access to the county’s estimated 200,000 eligible residents who haven’t yet gotten vaccinated.
“We’re still moving along,” said Jen Stratton, director of communications for Family Hospital Systems in Williamson County, which partners with the county to run the hub. “Our focus is just changing.”
Both state and local health officials predicted months ago that the tables would eventually turn from not enough supply to more than enough.
“It happened with H1N1 [the “swine flu” pandemic of 2009-10] too. As it happens in all of these types of events,” said Dr. David Lakey, vice chancellor for health affairs and a chief medical officer at the University of Texas System, and a member of the state s Expert Vaccine Allocation Panel. “Early on, there is so much more demand than there is supply. And then it quickly tips in the other direction, where supply exceeds demand.
. It s all part of the City s Reimagining Public Safety Initiative. So how is this going to help?
Adler: Well, what we did last week was to not change any functions, to not change any people, but to take certain departments and put them under civilian control. So the finance department and the police department is now part of the overall City finance department. As with all other departments, the building services division is now in charge of facilities, as in all other departments, and 9-1-1, 3-1-1, these important emergency call services are now under, again, common operational control. We think it s going to make the city more efficient. It s going to help taxpayers and we think it s going to ultimately improve both the operations and the safety in the city.