The inclement weather has affected the Rio Grande Valley in ways that few could have speculated. With freezing temperatures creating power outages and hazardous roads, the dangerous conditions have also caused local officials to delay COVID-19 vaccine distributions.
According to a city of Mission news release, a distribution clinic that was scheduled Monday in partnership with Mission, the school district and Hidalgo County has been delayed until noon Tuesday.
All adult care centers scheduled for the vaccine have been moved to Wednesday at the Mission High School gym with the same scheduled times.
Delays, however, may only be for a single day for those who planned on receiving the first dose of the vaccine Monday.
“With the vaccines, you can have (the second dosage) like four days before and seven days after. The second dosage should be no problem,” Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez said Monday. “On the first dose, it’s just a delay of hopefully one day.”
Cortez said that the delay is a minor setback for the community, and added that since the county received the vaccine there have been over 100,000 doses distributed county-wide.
“Right now the streets are dangerous. It’s cold. We have a lot of households that don’t have electricity. We think it’s safer to do what we’re doing,” the county judge stressed about dangerous weather conditions. “This is the recommendation of the state, and we agree with them.
“The biggest concern is always the health and safety of our citizens. As you well know, some of our citizens really struggle with having heat in their homes. I know that in the past we’ve lost some people who had no choice but to put firewood inside their homes and stuff like that. I’m always concerned about the safety of the people.”
While Cortez expressed concern about potential economic effects the freezing weather will have on residents who are unable to work, he hoped that such an adverse impact would not be long-lasting.
But despite the delays and projected economic impact the freeze has created, the county judge expressed optimism Monday about the county’s coronavirus response efforts.
He pointed to county commissioners successfully identifying partners in local cities and school districts who are compatible in assisting in the vaccination process, creating better organization in the process.
“Johnson & Johnson is already starting to try to get authorization to bring their vaccine into the market. We’re hopeful that in another couple of weeks we’re going to have another supply of vaccines,” Cortez said, adding that the county received 1,000 more doses this week than in the past, and pointed to the hospitalization and ICU rates declining in the county.
“That’s really the one that I look at because there’s a lot of people who have gotten COVID, but have had not very strong symptoms and they’ll survive it,” he added. “Those that go to the hospital are the ones we’re more concerned with, and that seems to be stabilizing. All those are good trends.”
