Kerr County leaders discuss COVID-19 vaccination distribution

The Kerr County Commissioners Court passed a resolution Monday to let state officials know that Kerr County has not received any vaccine doses for weeks now and that isn’t acceptable. The county is not expected to receive any vaccine shipments this week, either.

In the meantime, local leaders want to ensure the public that everything else related to the actual vaccination clinics is “set and ready to go” once the vaccines do arrive. Once the date is confirmed for the first allocation of COVID-19 vaccine shipments, an announcement will be made immediately on the county’s website, Facebook page and through CodeRed, including details as to how citizens can register for appointments.

According to Kerr County Emergency Management Coordinator Dub Thomas, “We have been doing mass flu shot clinics for about ten years now, and we know we have gotten good at the process. We had to adapt the plan a little to factor in the needed 15-minute observation period necessary after each person receives their shot, but we have our procedures lined out. We have our facilities ready to go. We even have additional facilities planned so that if we get more vaccines, we can open multiple clinic sites.”

Kerr County is currently operating an information-only call center to offer assistance to people who have questions or concerns regarding the COVID-19 virus or vaccinations. Residents can call Mondays through Fridays from 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. at (830) 315-5900.

As of Tuesday, January 26, Kerr County has 290 active COVID-19 cases and 26 patients hospitalized with virus related complications at Peterson Regional Medical Center. The county’s official COVID-19 death toll stands at 68.

Gillespie County is reporting 159 active novel coronavirus cases and 12 patients hospitalized at Hill Country Memorial Hospital due to COVID-19 complications. The county’s official COVID-19 death toll stands at 40.

Statewide, the first COVID-19 vaccines in Texas were administered on December 14. Since then, 3,898,700 doses have been allocated to vaccine providers across Texas and of those, 3,012,250 doses have been physically shipped.

A total of 1,868,596 doses, or 62.03% of those that have been shipped, have been administered to people. Providers across the state are administering an average of 72,846 doses per day. In all, as of January 26, 1.06% of all Texans (297,503) have been fully vaccinated, and 5.67% (1,273.590) have been partially vaccinated. DSHS only counts people aged 16 and above when determining the coverage rate.