HOUSTON – The Texas Department of Health Services shared an update on the allocation and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Imelda Garcia, associate commissioner for Infectious Disease Services and Laboratory and chairman of the Specialist Vaccine Allocation Panel, commented on the event, focusing on the new 1C group to start receiving the vaccine on Monday in Texas.

RELATED: Texas Expands Vaccine Eligibility to Anyone 50 and Over Starting Next Week

Garcia said the group’s designation “does its best” to protect Texians from COVID-19 because the next age group, combined with groups 1A and 1B, comprises 93 percent of COVID-19 deaths in Texas. She added that together with groups 1A and 1B, group 1C has a significant risk of serious illness, hospitalization and death, adding that the data is “very clear” at this point.

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“Opening vaccination to this group will allow us to continue to reduce the number of deaths we are seeing across the state and help to relieve pressure on our hospitals and the rest of the health system,” said Garcia. “This is a good time to make this transition because more than half of people aged 65 and over – about 53% – have received at least one dose of the vaccine – and we are almost a third fully vaccinated. “

KPRC 2 will have a video of the observations as soon as they can be processed into the video at the beginning of this article.

HOUSTON – The Texas Department of Health Services shared an update on the allocation and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Imelda Garcia, associate commissioner for Laboratory Services and Infectious Diseases and chairman of the Specialist Vaccine Allocation Panel, commented on the event, focusing on the new 1C group to start receiving the vaccine on Monday in Texas.

RELATED: Texas Expands Vaccine Eligibility to Anyone 50 and Over Starting Next Week

Garcia said the group’s designation “does its best” to protect Texans from COVID-19 because the next age group, combined with groups 1A and 1B, comprises 93 percent of COVID-19 deaths in Texas. She added that together with groups 1A and 1B, group 1C has a significant risk of serious illness, hospitalization and death, adding that the data is “very clear” at this point.

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“Opening vaccination to this group will allow us to continue to reduce the number of deaths we are seeing across the state and help to relieve pressure on our hospitals and the rest of the health system,” said Garcia. “This is a good time to make this transition because more than half of people aged 65 and over – about 53% – have received at least one dose of the vaccine – and we are almost a third fully vaccinated. “

KPRC 2 will have a video of the observations as soon as they can be processed into the video at the beginning of this article.