Vaccine arrives in Texas
According to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) as of Monday, Dec. 14, reports 1,328,213 confirmed cases with 6,479 new cases, 111 newly reported fatalities.
Cass County has a total of 813 confirmed cases, 87 active cases and 41 fatalities. There have been 1,044 recoveries.
Bowie County has a total of 2679 confirmed cases, 504 active cases and 111 fatalities. There have been 2,862 recoveries.
Morris County has a total of 302 confirmed cases, 26 active cases and eight fatalities. There have been 386 recoveries.
Marion County has a total of 191 confirmed cases, 16 active cases and 17 fatalities. There have been 196 recoveries.
COVID-19 vaccine arrives in Texas
The first shipments of COVID-19 vaccine have been delivered in Texas. Four sites received 19,500 doses of the Pfizer vaccine Monday morning. An additional 19 sites will receive 75,075 doses on Tuesday .
“Seeing the first doses of vaccine arrive in Texas is an important milestone signaling that a return to our way of life is within sight,” said Dr. John Hellerstedt, DSHS Commissioner. “We cannot stop short of the finish line. This hope should lift our spirits and strengthen our resolve to do what must be done to end the pandemic.”
The Pfizer vaccine began shipping over the weekend following an emergency use authorization issued Friday by the Food and Drug Administration. FDA scientists determined that the known benefits of the vaccine for people 16 and older outweigh its risks. A second vaccine, manufactured by Moderna, is under consideration by the FDA and could be authorized late this week.
Additional shipments are expected to occur later this week. In all, Texas was allocated 224,250 doses of vaccine to be shipped to 110 providers across the state in Week 1 of distribution. The focus is on facilities that indicated they will vaccinate at least 975 front-line health care workers since that is the minimum order for the Pfizer vaccine. Adding the Moderna vaccine next week, available in batches of 100 doses, will result in more vaccine being available for many more providers across the state. The full list of the facilities receiving vaccine in Week 1 is available at Week 1 COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation .
Receiving the COVID-19 vaccine is voluntary. Frontline health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities are the first groups to be vaccinated, and the Expert Vaccine Allocation Panel will make recommendations about subsequent groups. It will take a matter of months to manufacture and distribute enough vaccine for everyone who wants to be vaccinated. Until then, people should continue to prevent transmission of COVID-19 by wearing a mask and maintaining a social distance while around people they don’t live with, staying home when possible, and washing their hands frequently.
On Dec. 11, DSHS announced that it has updated the COVID-19 data dashboard to include additional data and to simplify the layout to improve functionality.
DSHS is adding case counts for probable cases statewide and by county. Probable cases are those identified through antigen testing or a combination of symptoms and a known exposure without a more likely diagnosis. Reporting probable cases allows Texans to see a more complete picture of how COVID-19 is affecting Texas since both confirmed and probable cases represent active infections. For that reason, they will be included in the estimates of active and recovered cases.
In addition to the probable case counts, DSHS is adding a positivity rate for antigen tests. This positivity rate, based on when people were tested, aligns with the most reliable positivity rate for molecular tests. These positivity rates, which show the percentage of tests taken in a given period that are positive, provide a consistent view of the severity of the pandemic over time because they most closely reflect the conditions when people were tested.
The configuration of the dashboard will change to improve performance. Some tabs will be combined, and users will be able to toggle between confirmed and probable cases, fatalities, and active and recovered estimates by county on a single tab. Case and fatality demographics will also be consolidated onto one tab.
The dashboard is updated daily at 4 p.m. Visit https:// txdshs.maps.arcgis.com/ apps/opsdashboard for the latest information.