Texas to receive more than 800,000 COVID-19 vaccine first doses for next week

5 million people vaccinated as Texas expands eligibility

News Release
March 12, 2021

More than 800,000 first doses of COVID-19 vaccine will be shipped to providers across Texas next week. The Texas Department of State Health Services is allocating 656,810 doses to at least 445 providers in 178 counties. Approximately 200,000 additional first doses will be available to pharmacy locations and federally-qualified health centers directly from the federal government.

The allocation is the third largest Texas has received since vaccination began in December. However, it is less than the record of more than 1 million first doses delivered this week. The decrease follows a large amount of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine coming to the state. Smaller amounts of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be available for the next two weeks as production increases. Additionally, the federally-supported sites in Arlington, Dallas and Houston have finished their three-week cycle of first doses and will be administering second doses for the next three weeks.

Texas has now administered more than 7.6 million doses, an increase of nearly 1.4 million in the last week. More than 5 million people have received at least one dose, up more than a million over last week, and more than 2.7 million are fully vaccinated. Among Texas seniors, 55 percent have received at least one dose and about one in three are now fully vaccinated. About one in eight of all Texans at least 16 years old are now fully vaccinated.

Texas announced this week that people ages 50 to 64 will be eligible for vaccination beginning March 15. They are added to health care workers, long-term care residents, people 65 and older, people with chronic health care conditions that may increase their risk of severe COVID-19, and school and child care workers. DSHS estimates that 12 to 14 million Texans will be eligible to be vaccinated as of next week.

In addition to the first doses mentioned above, the state is ordering 578,320 doses intended as the second dose for people first vaccinated a few weeks ago. DSHS automatically orders second doses to arrive at providers in the week they can begin to be administered, so they will be available when needed. People should be able to return to the same provider to receive their second dose within six weeks of getting the first.

People can find more information on COVID-19 vaccine at COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) | Texas DSHS.

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(News Media Contact: pressofficer@dshs.texas.gov)