Advocates call for improved COVID-19 vaccination process in Black, Hispanic communities
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People wait in a line for a COVID-19 vaccine shot Monday, Jan. 4, 2021, near the Bayou City Event Center in Houston.Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer
As the COVID-19 vaccine continues to make its way around Texas, advocates are concerned for communities of color.
Data from the Texas Department of State Health Services has shown that the virus is deadlier for people of color, with more than half of the deaths in Texas occurring among the Hispanic or Black communities. Now, advocates are concerned that the state s designated vaccination sites are being placed in more affluent areas that will give the white population greater access to the medicine.
COVID-19 has been disproportionately deadly for <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/30/texas-coronavirus-deaths/">communities of color in Texas</a>. And advocates for those communities are worried that they will have more trouble accessing vaccinations than the white population because of where vaccination sites are located.
In the state's largest metropolitan areas, vaccine distribution centers like hospitals and pharmacies are more common in white, affluent neighborhoods.
Austin Public Health said the state allocates a certain amount for each county. So APH has only received around 1,300 doses.much under the amount they had hoped for.