Texas scheduled to receive one million first doses of COVID-19 vaccine this coming week

Texas will get more than a million first doses of COVID-19 vaccine next week, according to the Department of State Health Services. That is almost 100,000 more than the state received this week.

This comes as the state expands eligibility to all adults starting Monday. DSHS estimated the expanded eligibility will allow another 8 million to 10 million Texans to get a shot, but those shots may not be immediately available.

The state hit a milestone Friday – 10 million COVID-19 vaccines administered in the state. More than 30% of eligible Texans right now have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, according to Governor Greg Abbott’s office.

In a press release, Abbott thanked health care workers and volunteers for helping the state hit the milestone.

On Thursday, Abbott held a press conference from McAllen to update the public on the Save Our Seniors initiative, which aims to vaccinate seniors, especially those who are homebound. The program was initially started in rural areas for seniors who may not have immediate access to vaccine resources.

“So far 90 counties have participated in the program to vaccinate homebound seniors. Now, the program is reaching out to more populated counties,” Abbott said on Thursday. Abbott added, “Anybody that is 80 years or older can go to the front of any line of any COVID-19 vaccine clinic.”

Texas is administering an average of 148,150 COVID-19 vaccine doses each day.