Kerr County leads mission to vaccinate homebound residents

A Kerr County-orchestrated effort earlier this week resulted in 143 homebound individuals and their caretakers getting COVID-19 vaccinations. On Monday, March 15, eight teams comprised of TMD personnel and Meals on Wheels volunteers delivered Moderna vaccines to those unable to seek inoculations elsewhere, according to Kerr County Emergency Management Coordinator Dub Thomas.

Thomas expressed his gratitude to the Texas Military Department and all of the volunteers in helping protect some of the community’s most vulnerable residents, and said that another 40 people received their shots in drive-through style at the Dietert Center the same day.

“It felt great to be able to protect these vulnerable individuals against the novel coronavirus. The Texas Military Department will return on April 12 to make sure these same people receive their second dose shots,” Thomas said.

In his second of two reports this week, Thomas aggregated data from Peterson Health and the Texas DSHS Region 8 and said that active COVID-19 cases in Kerr County dropped by one person and hospitalizations remained at zero since the county’s previous report on Tuesday.

As of March 18, there are 31 active COVID-19 cases, 4,158 recoveries and 83 fatalities of permanent Kerr County residents. The Texas DSHS has allocated 9,900 vaccines for the county. Currently, 9,673 first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have been received, 4,392 second doses and 4,392 people are fully vaccinated.

Citizens who would like to register to receive the COVID-19 vaccine when one becomes available for them locally are invited to call the Peterson Regional Medical Center Pre-Registration Call Center at 1-800-208-3611 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Mondays through Fridays, or complete the online registration process online at www.research.net/r/PetersonHealth.

Additional free COVID-19 testing is scheduled for March 22-26 at the Hill Country Youth Event Center, 3785 Hwy. 27 in Kerrville, from 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. People can pre-register online by visiting: https://cov19.health/#/patient/register/disclaimer, but no appointments or doctor referrals are necessary.

Anyone experiencing symptoms or believes that they may have been exposed to someone positive for the virus should self-isolate immediately and call their primary physician. If they do not have a primary doctor, they may call the Peterson Urgent Care at (830) 258-7669. Peterson Health also offers a COVID-19 hotline at (830) 896-4200, Option 1, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Mondays through Fridays.