HOUSTON (Reuters) – Texas will allocate about half of its latest COVID-19 vaccine supplies to just 28 health centers, officials said Sunday, with the goal of speeding up distribution amid growing infections and hospitalizations.
Distribution efforts in the second most populous U.S. state have fallen short, with people forced to wait for hours, online registration sites unable to keep up, or vaccination sites that have abruptly changed due to a overwhelming demand.
The state’s positivity rate, or percentage of positive cases, was 19.2% on Saturday, an increase of nearly 6 percentage points over the past four weeks. The new infections increased by about 19,000 and more than 13,000 people were hospitalized, an increase of 4,000 in the last four weeks.
The concentration of deliveries will simplify registrations and provide more prey to eligible residents, the state said in a press release. Initial allocations are based on estimates of how many people could serve each location. State Department of Health Services officials were not available for comment.
Of the 310,000 doses scheduled this week in Texas, about 159,000 will be delivered to just 28 locations. Smaller sites will split 38,300 doses and long-term care centers and nursing homes will get 121,875, the state said.
Gary McWilliams Reports; Edited by Peter Cooney