More than 2.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine will be shipped to providers across Texas next week. The Texas Department of State Health Services is allocating 1,094,920 first doses to 2,011 providers in 200 counties, including 200 doses destined for Sulphur Springs pharmacies.
Brookshire’s and Walgreens Pharmacies each are slated to receive 100 doses of the Johnson & Johnson 1-dose COVID-19 vaccine during the week of April 5 for distribution. Most local pharmacies have a waiting list, with sign up online, if the provider is accepting new registrants.
DSHS is also ordering 626,290 second doses for people vaccinated a few weeks ago. An estimated 900,000 additional first and second doses are expected to be available to additional pharmacy locations, federally-qualified health centers and dialysis centers across the state as allocated directly by the federal government.
Texas had administered more than 11.8 million doses of the vaccine, an increase of 1.8 million in the last week, and 360,000 more Thursday than was reported on Wednesday. Nearly 7.8 million people have received at least one dose, and more than 4.3 million are now fully vaccinated. Among Texas seniors, more than two-thirds have received at least one dose, and nearly half are now fully vaccinated. More than one-third of all Texans at least 16 years old have gotten a shot and nearly one in five are fully vaccinated.
In Hopkins County 22.92 percent of the population has received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine (6,688 residents) and 13.06 percent were fully vaccinated (3,809 residents) as of 11:59 p.m. April 1. Overall, 10,497 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been distributed to people with a Hopkins County Zip code, according to the DSHS April 2 COVID-19 Vaccine Data dashboard.
City (Zip code) Total First Dose Fully Vaccinated Sulphur Springs (75482) 221 141 86 Sulphur Springs (75483) 61 45 22 Brashear (75420) 332 225 111 Como (75431) 429 312 129 Cumby (75433) 727 495 255 Dike (75437) 296 210 90 Pickton (75471) 294 224 93 Saltillo (75478) 238 159 82 Sulphur Bluff (75481) 140 89 54 Winnsboro (75494) 2819 1945 1100 Yantis (75497) 1563 1044 563
As of this week, all Texans ages 16 and older are eligible to receive a vaccine. DSHS also launched the Texas Public Health Vaccine Scheduler at getthevaccine.dshs.texas.gov, which allows people to register for a vaccine appointment from a participating public health entity such as DSHS and some local health departments. Already, more than 125,000 people have registered.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today updated its travel guidance for people who are fully vaccinated, saying that they can safely travel within the United States and no longer need to get tested or quarantine before or after travel, unless their destination requires it. People who are not yet vaccinated should continue to stay home and quarantine for seven days after travel and get tested three to five days after returning.
According to DSHS, vaccination has helped drive down the number of new cases and people hospitalized with COVID-19 to their lowest level since June. However, with hundreds of variant cases identified in Texas that have the potential to spread more quickly and cause more serious disease, vaccination remains critically important. The available vaccines have proven effective against the variant strains, so the more people vaccinated, the easier it will be to keep the variants under control and prevent new ones from emerging, according to the April 2, 2021 DSHS news release.
In Hopkins County, March ended with 121 COVID-19 recoveries and only 98 new COVID-19 cases (60 confirmed by molecular lab testing and 38 probable cases assigned to individuals who either tested positive through an antigen test or have a combination of symptoms and a known exposure to someone with COVID-19 without a more likely diagnosis.) With the exception of December when all prior probable cases were added to the total count midmonth, March is the first time since August that recoveries have outpaced new cases.
Cases in Hopkins County have decreased significantly from 483 new cases in December to 400 in January, 269 in February and 98 in March. April started off with 8 new confirmed cases on Thursday, the most in a single day since the 12 new confirmed cases recorded on Feb. 25.
The patient count in the COVID-19 unit at CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital-Sulphur Springs was also down from 29 at the start of January, 14 Feb. 1, 10 on March 1 and 2. In Trauma Service Area F, which includes all of Northeast Texas, the lab-confirmed COVID-19 patient count dropped from 204 on Jan. 1 to 143 Feb. 1, 65 on March 1 and 21 on April 1.
Additional COVID-19 Vaccine Information
- COVID-19 vaccine dshs.texas.gov/covidvaccine/.
- Weekly vaccine allocations, including the full list for the week of April 5
- Vaccination hub providers with contact information
- DSHS/TDEM map of vaccine providers
- Texas Vaccine Data dashboard
- Texas COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Wasted Report
- Texas Public Health Vaccine Scheduler getthevaccine.dshs.texas.gov
