HOUSTON (Reuters) – Texas will allocate about half of its most recent stock of COVID-19 vaccine to just 28 health centers, officials said on Sunday, with the aim of accelerating delivery amid rising infections and hospitalizations.
Distribution efforts in the second most populous state in the United States have been insufficient, with people being forced to wait hours, online registration sites unable to keep up, or vaccine locations changed abruptly due to huge demand.
The state’s positivity rate, or percentage of positive test cases, was 19.2% on Saturday, almost 6 percentage points more in the past four weeks. New infections increased by almost 19,000 and more than 13,000 people were hospitalized, an increase of 4,000 in the past four weeks.
Concentrating deliveries will simplify registration and provide more photos to eligible residents, the state said in a press release. Initial allocations are based on estimates of how many people each location could serve. State Department of Health Services officials were not available for comment.
Of the 310,000 doses expected this week in Texas, about 159,000 will be delivered to just 28 locations. Smaller sites will share 38,300 doses and health facilities and long-term care facilities will receive 121,875, the state said.
Gary McWilliams reporting; Peter Cooney edition