After winter forced major COVID-19 vaccine centers to close last week, Dallas and Tarrant counties faced another setback when the state announced it would cut its dose distribution to zero this week for Human Services and Health in County. Dallas and Tarrant County Public Health.
Other centers in the counties, such as Parkland Hospital in Dallas and Texas Health in Fort Worth, will still receive large amounts of the vaccine.
“We have people who have been waiting on the list since January to receive a vaccine,
therefore, we need them not to mess with the North Texas vaccine, “said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.
The change of state occurs after the announcement of partnerships with FEMA in both municipalities.
This week, FEMA will begin operating vaccine centers at Dallas’ Fair Park and
Arlington globe life camp. Both sites will vaccinate 21,000 people a week for three weeks and are focused on vaccinating those who live in underserved postal codes.
Dallas County Human and Health Services
Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said it was guaranteed that the state’s vaccine supply would not be cut off before he agreed to the FEMA partnership.
“It’s very disappointing,” said Whitley. “We are doing everything we said we would do and we just want the state to move forward and do what it agreed to do when we agreed to be a FEMA site.”
Whitley said the state’s action cut 16,000 vaccines from their expected distribution this week and caused them to move to other vaccination sites.
On Monday, Whitley said Texas Health Resources agreed to give 5,000 of its doses to the health department to help vaccinate more people on the county waiting list.
Jenkins said the state’s decision means that at least 9,000 fewer people will be vaccinated this week than they expected. He said the state’s decision affected vaccination distributions at other vaccination sites in the county as well.
“The state is receiving a record amount of vaccines this week. We are not asking for more than what we are receiving. We are just asking for what citizens have received each week,” said Jenkins.
NBC 5 contacted the Texas State Department of Health Services and the office of Governor Gregg Abbott for information about the decision and received the following statement from a DSHS spokesperson.
“The vaccine allocated to Dallas and Tarrant counties is almost at the same level as it has been in the past few weeks, including the doses associated with the FEMA effort. With an unexpected prescription of more than 84,000 doses going to just three counties, the Expert Vaccine Allocation Panel recommended sending additional doses to parts of the state that have not received as much vaccine, according to their principle of equitable distribution of the vaccine across the state . This allowed us to allocate vaccine in 230 counties next week, the maximum for any week so far.
“The vaccine is distributed week by week and the amount of vaccine available changes each week.“
Whitley and Jenkins contacted the health department and the governor’s office to appeal the decision.
Want to get on a vaccine waiting list?
As the state begins to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to those in Phases 1A and 1B, county health departments have started making waiting lists for those who wish to be inoculated.
You can now register to receive vaccinations in Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties. The links are below:
Waiting list links: Collin – Search Waiting List | Dallas | Denton | Tarrant
You don’t have to be a county resident to register for a COVID-19 vaccine in that county – registration is open to anyone in Texas. For those without Internet access, Tarrant County is also accepting applications by calling 817-248-6299. In Dallas County, call the DCHHS vaccine hotline at 1-855-IMMUNE9 (1-855-466-8639). In Denton County, call 940-349-2585.