DHR Health has announced a mass vaccination distribution scheduled for Tuesday morning at Bert Ogden Arena in Edinburg.
According to a news release, DHR Health will be distributing 6,500 doses of the Moderna vaccine to eligible residents.
Those who qualify for the vaccine fall into two tiers: Tier 1A includes frontline healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities; tier 1B includes people over the age 65 and older, and people age 18 and under with at any of these chronic medical conditions:
- Cancer
- Chronic kidney disease
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Heart conditions
- Organ transplantation
- Obesity
- Type 2 diabetes
- Pregnancy
Registration for the vaccine began Monday evening at H-E-B Park, located at 1616 S. Raul Longoria Road #9169 in Edinburg. Wristbands for residents who qualify for the vaccine were distributed, and a consent form found at the Texas Department of State Health Services website must be filled out prior to registering.
Shalimar Madrigal, Bert Ogden Arena’s director of marketing, said that vaccine recipients were allowed to stay overnight in the parking lot of H-E-B Park, however once a wristband is acquired, recipients were allowed to leave and return in the morning.
“We are hosting it at our venues because we have done COVID testing here, we’ve done food drives and blood drives at both of our facilities before,” Madrigal said Monday. “We’ve worked really closely with the local government and the state, so we have experience executing these large scale distribution events. That’s why they’ve partnered with us, and we are proud to be serving the community in this way as the site for these vaccines.”
Traffic was expected to move to Bert Ogden Arena at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning.
Hidalgo County reported six COVID-19 related deaths and 538 new cases of the virus Monday, with hospitalizations continuing its alarming climb in the region.
The deaths include a woman over 70 from Alamo, a man in his 60s from Edinburg, a woman and a man over 70 from McAllen, a man in his 40s from an undisclosed location, and a woman over 70 from Weslaco.
The six deaths raise Hidalgo County’s COVID-19 death toll to 2,253.
Of the county’s 538 new cases, 340 are confirmed, 197 are probable, and one is suspected. This raises the county’s total number of COVID-19 cases to 55,138, of which 38,185 are confirmed, 16,111 are probable, and 842 are suspected.
As of Monday morning, there were 393 people in Hidalgo County hospitals with the virus, of which 115 were in intensive care units. Additionally, there were 308 people released from isolation Monday, raising that total to 50,704.
There are 2,181 net active cases in the county.
Hidalgo County has administered 324,602 COVID-19 tests, and 268,587 were negative.
ELSEWHERE IN THE VALLEY
Cameron County reported seven COVID-19 related deaths and 155 new cases of the virus Monday.
The deaths include two men in their 60s, a man in his 70s and a woman in her 80s from Brownsville; as well as two men in their 70s from Harlingen and a man in his 70s from Rio Hondo.
The deaths raise the county’s toll to 1,212.
Of the county’s 155 new cases, 54 were from Brownsville, 51 were from Harlingen, and 16 were from San Benito. The new cases raise the total number of confirmed cases in Cameron County to 31,347.
There were an additional 285 people who recovered from COVID-19, raising that total to 26,453.
In a news release, the county said that access to the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System, which provides COVID-19 case reports to Cameron County Public Health, was disabled due to system maintenance on the Cameron County server.
“According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, it may take a week to be able to access the system,” the release read. “As approximately 60% of the daily COVID-19 case reports Cameron County Public Health provides are obtained from NEDSS, the case numbers being reported will be low until the system is enabled.”
Willacy County confirmed 29 additional cases of COVID-19 Monday. The county now has a total of 1,701 confirmed COVID-19 cases.
