Texas youth show up in “amazing” numbers as state tries to vaccinate 1.7 million children now eligible for COVID-19 shot Texas Tribune Updated: Tags: , our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. In the first week that Texas adolescents were eligible to be vaccinated for COVID-19, after a year of pandemic-induced isolation from their families, peers and classrooms, more than 100,000 kids ages 12-15 poured into pediatricians’ offices, vaccine hubs and school gyms across Texas to get their shots. One of them was Austin Ford, a 14-year-old in Houston whose mother is a pediatric nurse, whose father has a disability that makes him vulnerable to COVID, and who lost a family member to the virus last month.