Texas dashboard provides updates on how many vaccine shots have been given in El Paso, across state
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- As the City of El Paso heads into its third week of Covid-19 vaccinations, a new Texas dashboard allows the public to follow along with vaccine rollout throughout the state.
The "Covid-19 Vaccination in Texas" dashboard, run by the Texas Department of State Health Services, reports how many vaccine doses have been administered in each region throughout the state. As of Monday morning, the dashboard reported more than 377,000 people statewide had been vaccinated with at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. Zero people had been fully vaccinated with the required two doses.
More than 16,000 people in El Paso had been vaccinated with at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the dashboard Monday morning.
As of Sunday, the City of El Paso had administered less than half of vaccine doses it had received. The director of El Paso's public health department said that one of the reasons for the low numbers is due to a glitch in the software the city uses to report how many doses have been used. Angela Mora also said that the city and some of the vaccine providers still lack extensive experience in mass vaccination campaigns.
"The beginnings don't usually go that smoothly and I think that's what we have experienced," Mora said. "Maybe some of the agencies were not fully ready. Or maybe they thought they were ready [and] they identified something that required more time for them to be fully ready. I think that was a little bit expected."
Mora also said that immunization non-profit "Immunize El Paso," was given 2,000 doses by the state of Texas in late December and had to transfer 1,100 of them to the Department of Public Health to ensure faster distribution.
"Immunize El Paso are huge immunizing players in the community and we know that they know how to do their job because that is what they do all year," Mora said. "They provide thousands of immunizations a year to the El Paso community, so we have full confidence that they will once they start moving forward. That they will not have any further delays in administering the vaccine.”
As of Monday, the City of El Paso was prioritizing vaccines for emergency and frontline workers, people aged 65 and older and people who are 16 and older with at least one chronic health condition. Individuals who are part of these groups can pre-register with the health department by filling out this form.
