Austin, Texas – Austin Public Health (APH) launched its COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Dashboard to provide up-to-date information on vaccines in Austin-Travis County.
The panel will be updated weekly and includes the total doses administered by APH organized by priority age group, postal code, race / ethnicity and the estimated population of Travis County in 2019 with the percentage of people aged 65 and over for the context.
There are more than 150,000 people who qualify as 1A or 1B, and APH has received only 12,000 vaccines a week since January 11th.
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According to the American community survey, Travis County has 129,645 people over the age of 65, comprised of 68.2% white, 18% Hispanic, 7.6% African American, 5.1% Asian and 3.9% of two or more races. The data indicates that the proportions of COVID-19 vaccines administered by the APH are consistent with the percentage of people aged 65 years to individuals who identify themselves as Asians, Hispanics and whites, but falls short for those who identify themselves as African Americans .
Even though 18% of vaccines administered by the APH are for those who identify themselves as Hispanic, officials say that this is not enough to contain the levels of transmission among this population. In addition, only 4% of African Americans in Travis County received the APH vaccine, despite representing 7.6% of the Travis County population aged 65 and over.
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The authorities say they have implemented some strategies to address these concerns, which include:
- Work with grassroots organizations to communicate the importance of receiving the vaccine.
- Partnership with Travis County to proactively call community members from vulnerable populations and register them in the system and, if times are available, schedule them.
- Explore options, such as mobile vaccine clinics, that could also administer the vaccine to non-home residents.
- Strategically identify where communities are most affected to establish vaccine distribution sites.
- Partnership with CapMetro to offer transport for vaccination consultations.
- Continued distribution of PPE with community organizations.
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Other notes about the panel:
- There are more than 350 suppliers of COVID-19 vaccines in Travis County that have been approved by the Texas Department of Health Services (DSHS). The APH COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Dashboard is limited to data on doses administered by APH.
- The allocation data shown on the panel is different from the current allocation received by APH. The data does not include vaccinations performed before the electronic registration process. This information is being entered manually by the team. As the distribution of the APH vaccine makes a complete transition to the use of available technology, the data will better reflect the weekly allocation of APH.
- The DSHS vaccine map shows the total number of vaccines being delivered in Travis County, plus a link to the John Hopkins vaccine tracker.
- APH will continue to make improvements to the panel as more information becomes available
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