Texas puts more energy into fewer locations to speed up COVID-19 shooting

Officials said on Sunday that Texas will allocate about half of the latest COVID-19 vaccine supply to only 28 medical facilities, with the goal of speeding up distribution amid rising infection and hospitalization rates.

In the second most populous state in the United States, distribution work has been insufficient. People are forced to wait for hours, online registration sites cannot keep up, or the vaccination location is suddenly changed due to strong demand.

On Saturday, the state’s positive rate (that is, the percentage of positive cases) was 1

9.2%, an increase of nearly 6 percentage points in the past four weeks. The number of new infections has increased by nearly 19,000, and the number of hospitalizations has exceeded 13,000, which has increased by 4,000 in the past four weeks.

The state stated in a press release that centralized delivery will simplify signing orders and provide more services to eligible residents. The first allocation is based on an estimate of how many people each location can serve. Officials from the State Department of Health Services did not comment.

Of the 310,000 doses expected this week in Texas, approximately 159,000 doses will be delivered to 28 locations. The state said 38,300 doses of drugs will be distributed in smaller locations, and 121,875 doses will be given to nursing homes and long-term care facilities.