Vaccines planned here

COVID-19 vaccinations will be offered in Burleson County on Thursday, March 18, at the Caldwell Civic Center.

This will be a temporary clinic, not a regular vaccination sub-HUB as is offered in Brenham and Bryan, due to a limited supply of vaccines, said Burleson County Emergency Management Coordinator Duane Strange.

However, the county does plan to offer the site again at a later date to administer second doses, he said.

The Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) will be in charge of the vaccination process with assistance from the Texas Military Department, Strange said.

Strange said the focus is to reach the 75-year and older population, however the 65-year and older group will still be included.

Residents will soon be able to call a designated number to be placed on a wait list and will then be contacted to schedule an appointment time, Strange said.

This temporary clinic is for Burleson County residents and any resident who would like a shot will need to have an appointment, Strange said.

More details on that are pending.

In addition, JLyle Medical Clinic, PLLC of Caldwell was approved to receive an allocation of Moderna vaccines, according to Dr. Shirley Smith, the clinic owner.

Smith said the clinic has a waiting list started for those who wish to receive a vaccine and should call (979)-567-8500 to be placed on the waiting list.

Smith said residents must take their insurance or Medicare card and proper identification at the time of their appointment. Residents will fill out a consent form at the clinic and will be given a shot record and instruction on when to return for their second dose.

In recent COVID news, school and child care workers are now included in vaccine administration throughout the U.S., along with the age 65 and medically vulnerable population.

The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) notified all vaccine providers to include “those who work in preprimary, primary, and secondary schools, as well as Head Start and Early Head Start programs (including teachers, staff, and bus drivers) and those who work as or for licensed child care providers, including center-based and family care providers,” as defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

DSHS said this action does not diminish the prioritization of the 65 and older population or the medically vulnerable population.

Caldwell ISD has vaccinated 70 staff members as of March 1, according to Caldwell Superintendent Andrew Peters.

Peters said the staff members who wanted a vaccine were able to go through CHI St. Joseph Health Burleson Hospital, Washington County subHUB in Brenham and Brookshire Brothers in Caldwell.

“If the state asked us to administer vaccines on site at the school we would. However, at this time, it is not an option. We are continuing to work with TDEM on the testing. Our nurse does provide COVID testing however, the state only allows us to do it for employees and students with parental permission,” Peters said.

In addition, the Brazos Center was scheduled to administer 5,000 first doses and 2,300 second doses from Monday, March 8, to Friday, March 12.

Second doses will be administered through a drive-through service on Thursday and Friday, since last Friday’s drive-through trial at the hub was successful, according to Vaccination Task Force Chief Jim Stewart.

Stewart also said masks are required in order to receive a vaccine at the Brazos Center.

As of Friday, March 5, the Brazos Center has administered 24,720 first doses and 5,039 second doses, said Director of Marketing and Public Relations for CHI St. Joseph Health Regional Hospital Heather Bush.

The online wait list to receive a vaccine through the Bryan hub closed on March 4. The hub is moving to a vaccination hub website to register people for first doses.

The site went live on Monday, March 8, at 10 a.m. to register people who are eligible in the 1A or 1B categories or school and child care workers.

On subsequent weeks, the hub website will post available appointments on Fridays at 10 a.m. The number of available appointments will be based on the number of vaccines allocated to the hub each week.

To register for a first dose vaccine at the Brazos Center, or for information regarding the hub, or to sign up to be a volunteer at the hub, visit https://brazoshub. com.

The hub is no longer utilizing the direct line to the 211-call center to register people. Instead, residents who do not have internet access or an email address must call (979)-703-1545 to register for a vaccine appointment.

The Brazos Center has had 2,100 volunteers with over 14,000 hours of service since its opening on Jan. 28. The hub operates with 180 volunteers a day.

Stewart said if the hub is allocated and administers about 10,000 doses a week to those who want a vaccine, the entire Brazos Valley area would be vaccinated by the end of July.

In Brenham, the Washington County subHUB administered 4,000 first doses on Tuesday, March 9, and second doses were administered the following day.

As of March 4, the Brenham hub has administered 17,342 first doses and 8,112 second doses, according to Melinda Gordon, the Communications and Public Relations Manager for the City of Brenham.

Gordon said the hub is still registering residents at https://wacounty.saferestart.net and consent forms can be found at https://www.localevent.info.

Statewide, Texas has administered 6.3 million COVID vaccines, with more than 4 million people who have received their first dose and more than 2.2 million people are fully vaccinated, according to DSHS.

In the 65 year and older population, over 48 percent have received their first dose and more than 1 million seniors are fully vaccinated, according to DSHS.

More than 1 million first doses of COVID-19 were sent out to the state this week. The state allocated 929,320 doses to 1,651 providers in 243 counties, with more than 200,000 additional doses to pharmacy locations and health centers, according to DSHS.

The FDA authorized the new single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine last week. Of those 929,320 doses, 245,000 doses were the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. This week, 24,000 Johnson & Johnson doses were delivered to providers in federally supported vaccination sites in Arlington, Dallas and Houston, according to DSHS.

Douglas Loveday, the press officer for DSHS, said the next priority group (Phase 1C), is still being determined by the Expert Vaccine Allocation Panel, and an announcement on that population could happen later this month.

“Having a limited supply of vaccine has been the main reason more people are not vaccinated in Texas and everywhere else. We have not had the supply available to give to all of the providers across Texas that want the vaccine. We continue to vaccinate people in Phase 1A and 1B, which is a population group numbering in the millions. With the addition of more than 800,000 educators and child care workers, it will still be a number of weeks before vaccine will be available to future 1C priority groups,” Loveday said.

“Having a limited supply of vaccine has been the main reason more people are not vaccinated in Texas and everywhere else.” - Douglas Loveday, Press Officer for Texas Department of State Health Services