With an increase in the available vaccine doses, all Texas residents can now receive the COVID-19 vaccine, though the state plans to still maintain a priority for its oldest residents who have yet to receive the injection.
Gov. Greg Abbott recently Tweeted about the opening-up of vaccinations to all residents and expectations that the volume of incoming doses to the state will continue to increase.
“We are getting higher volumes of vaccines and will administer more each week,” Abbott said in the Tweet. “Also anyone 80 and older will be allowed to go to the front of the line.”
On March 29, the state began permitting any resident 16 years old or older to receive the vaccine, according to coverage by The Texas Tribune. However, the state is still not only prioritizing appointments from those over 80, but also prioritizing walk-ins by the state’s oldest age group.
“We are closing in on 10 million doses administered in Texas, and we want to keep up the momentum as the vaccine supply increases,” Imelda Garcia, Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) associate commissioner for laboratory and infectious disease services and the chair of the state's Expert Vaccine Allocation Panel, the Tribune reported.
While opening up the eligibility to all age groups is expected to assist with problems in regard to equity of vaccine distribution, Kazique Prince, interim executive director for the Central Texas Collective for Racial Equity and a policy adviser for Austin Mayor Steve Adler, said there is still work to do in that regard, according to the Tribune.
“Economics will play into this whole situation, where folks who are less able to access the resources are going to have a harder time getting it,” Prince said, according to the Tribune. “The concern I still have is how do we meet the demand in an equitable way, and right now I think we’re still struggling with that.”
Yet, even as the state looks to increase the number of initial vaccine doses being administered, DSHS is reporting that approximately 350,000 of those who received a first dose are well-overdue for their second, according to coverage by CBS 21. Some of those are more than six weeks overdue, which is the maximum recommended time between doses for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.