As local officials continue their push for more COVID-19 vaccine doses, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar has urged Gov. Greg Abbott to send Texas National Guard personnel to assist border communities in distributing those vaccines.
In a letter to Abbott dated Feb. 1, Cuellar, D-Laredo, requested that the governor deploy the National Guard to help administer the COVID-19 vaccine in border communities, assuring that expenses accrued by the state would be reimbursed.
“I now ask you to redeploy these troops to help our Texas border communities overcome the continued challenges faced in their fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” Cuellar wrote. “The federal government will provide the necessary resources for the National Guard to administer the vaccine to local populations, including the many veterans who live near the South Texas border.”
The congressman noted that under President Joe Biden’s Memorandum to Extend Federal Support to Governors’ Use of National Guard to Respond to COVID-19 and to Increase Reimbursement and other Assistance Provided to States, the federal government will reimburse states for expenses related to vaccine distribution and administration at a 100% cost share until Sept. 30.
“Various areas across the Southwest Border continue to experience delays in distribution and administration of the COVID-19 vaccine,” Cuellar wrote. “Due to limited medical providers in the region, they require support personnel to effectively administer the vaccine to local populations.”
Texas National Guard personnel have already been deployed to rural areas as part of the State Mobile Vaccine Pilot Program.
The creation of the program, announced last month by Abbott and the Texas Division of Emergency Management, was for purposes of ramping up COVID-19 vaccinations in “underserved areas of Texas,” according to a news release issued Jan. 27.
Among those rural areas was Starr County where National Guard personnel administered 100 vaccine doses in Rio Grande City on Saturday.
Cuellar acknowledged the state had already supplied resources last month — including 470 staff members, medical equipment, and COVID-19 tests — but said it wasn’t enough.
Hospitalizations in the Rio Grande Valley continue to remain high with 664 COVID-19 hospitalizations reported in the Rio Grande Valley on Feb. 3, according to data gathered by the Texas Department of State Health Services.
While still far from the peak of 1,606 COVID-19 hospitalizations on July 21, 2020, it is nearly a 200% increase from the low of 220 hospitalizations reported in mid-October of that year.
That amounts to about 26% of all hospitalizations in the Lower Rio Grande Valley trauma service area which consists of Hidalgo, Cameron, Starr and Willacy counties. Statewide, about 20% of all hospitalizations are due to COVID-19.
In Laredo, Cuellar said, there were over 10,000 new positive cases in the last two weeks and six to 10 people were dying on a daily basis.
As of Wednesday, about 33% of all of their hospitalizations were COVID-19 patients.
“ Ensuring COVID-19 vaccines are safely and quickly distributed and administered to constituents is my top priority right now,” Cuellar stated in a news release. “We must deploy the Texas National Guard to our border communities for mass vaccination efforts so we can quickly save lives and help change course for this pandemic.”
“With this public health crisis, we need all hands on deck and wartime-like focus, which includes the manpower, technical support, and logistical capabilities of our nation’s military,” he added. “As a senior member of the Defense Subcommittee on Appropriations, I am dedicated to making sure vaccines are being administered as efficiently as possible and that every South Texan receives a vaccine regardless of where they live.”
