Abbott emphasizes need to vaccinate seniors as vaccine eligibility set to expand next week

McALLEN — As county officials throughout the Rio Grande Valley continue to push for higher allocations of COVID-19 vaccine doses, Gov. Greg Abbott said during a stop here Thursday that a challenge at the state level was an apparent decrease in demand for vaccines.

“An increased challenge that we’re seeing is not that we have not enough vaccines for the demand for it,” Abbott said. “We’re beginning to see a decrease in demand in vaccinations; we’re having about half or less than half of the people who signed up for a vaccine actually show up to get a vaccine.”

Millions of more Texans will be eligible to receive the vaccine beginning Monday, when eligibility is scheduled to expand to all adults. However, Abbott said officials did not expect to be overwhelmed by the number of individuals seeking to get vaccinated, citing the number of people who already received a vaccine.

About 4.2 million Texans age 50 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to data collected by the Texas Department of State Health Services, while more than 2.2 million people in the same age bracket have been fully vaccinated.

When it comes to people of all ages, 6.5 million have received at least one dose, while 3.3 million have been fully vaccinated.

“As a result, because of those high level of vaccinations, we think that we will be able to handle the number of people who will be showing up,” Abbott said.

The bigger urgency for the state, he said, was ensuring that the available doses are administered to bring down hospitalizations and COVID-19 related deaths.

As part of an effort to keep hospitalizations and deaths down, the state launched the “Save Our Seniors” initiative last month, which is now being rolled out in Hidalgo and Starr counties.

Abbott’s visit to the Valley on Thursday, with Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd and Major General Tracy Norris with the Texas Military Department, focused on the program and its purpose of prioritizing the vaccination of senior citizens.

“Mathematically, it’s a fact that seniors who contract COVID are the people who are most likely to either be hospitalized or lose their life because of COVID,” Abbott said, noting that vaccinations among seniors had already led to a downward trend of COVID-19 hospitalizations and the positivity rate for the state.

“So these vaccines are working, but the fact is, there are more seniors who still have yet to receive a COVID vaccine,” Abbott said.

As part of the program, TDEM and the Texas Military Department are partnering with the city of McAllen, Hidalgo County and the Offices of Emergency Management in McAllen, Alamo, Pharr, and San Juan to administer vaccinations directly to homebound seniors.

But in addition to launching the program here, the state is also expanding it with a direct outreach effort through which state partners will contact seniors by email, phone or direct mail to encourage them to get vaccinated and provide information on how to do so.

Those partners include the Texas Employee Retirement System, the Texas Teachers Retirement System, AARP, and Medicare health plans such as UnitedHealthcare, Humana and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas.

“Altogether, this will continue to expand the number of people who are most likely to be hospitalized from COVID to be able to get a vaccine, get it quickly, to make sure they stay healthy,” Abbott said.

Even as vaccine eligibility expands to nearly all Texans next week, Abbott assured the state would continue to prioritize older Texans, announcing that seniors who are 80 years or older will be able to jump to the front of any vaccine distribution line as long as they have identification as proof of age.

No appointment will be necessary, according to Abbott.

Anyone interested in receiving the vaccine can dial 2-1-1 to find their nearest vaccine clinic.