TUESDAY, 12 JANUARY 2021

*City of McKinney Fatalities as of 12/31/2020

COVID-19 VACCINE: In a joint letter sent today to Commissioner Hellerstedt of Texas' Department of State Health Services (DSHS), the Collin County Commissioners Court and the Collin County legislative delegation appealed to the state to provide additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to Collin County as soon as possible. The letter states that Collin County and its public/private partners are ready and able to host a mega-center for large scale vaccine distribution available to all Texans starting immediately.

Currently, two vaccines are authorized and recommended to prevent COVID-19: Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine. Texas continues to receive doses of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, and is distributing statewide to hospitals, pharmacies, local health departments, freestanding ERs and other clinics.

The Texas Department of State Health Services website provides information on vaccine allocation, distribution, plan phases, and vaccine provider locations. If you fall into the phase being vaccinated right now (currently Phase 1A and 1B), you can find local entities with vaccines on this DSHS map. It's important to note that not all of these locations are vaccinating the general public. The McKinney Fire Department received doses for city first responders and frontline workers, including healthcare and public safety employees. The Fire Department does not have vaccines available to the public at this time. https://www.dshs.texas.gov/news/updates.shtm#Vaccine

The Texas Department of State Health Services has instructed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ship first doses of COVID-19 vaccine to 234 providers this week. That includes 28 hub providers that will focus on large community vaccination efforts as Texas vaccinates health care workers, people 65 and older and those with medical conditions that put them at greater risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19.

The hub providers, listed below, will receive 158,825 doses of vaccine based on the number of people each provider estimated it could serve in a week. An additional 38,300 doses will go to other providers to continue vaccination in communities statewide. Providers in 104 counties will receive vaccine shipments this week, bringing the cumulative number of counties to 222. Vaccine has been administered to residents of all 254 Texas counties.

*Moderna vaccine vials are shipped with the intent of 10 doses per vial, however, it has been found that up to 11 doses can be drawn per vial. This accounts for the additional administered doses.