BOWIE COUNTY, Texas - Local emergency management officials have been in frequent contact with state health agencies in an effort to secure sufficient amounts of coronavirus vaccine to inoculate high-risk area residents who now qualify.
Officials including County Judge Bobby Howell hope Texarkana will be named one of Texas' rural vaccination hubs, ensuring more supply of vaccine as doses are distributed statewide. But the state has few answers, and whether the designation is coming is uncertain, said Lisa Thompson, spokesperson for the local emergency Joint Operations Center.
The foundation of Texas' vaccine distribution plan is a group of "hub" locations across the state prioritized to receive larger amounts of the state's limited vaccine supply. Since earlier this month, 84 locations have been designated as hubs, but none is in Bowie County and the nearest are in Longview, about 89 miles from Texarkana by car; Tyler, 116 miles away; and Bonham, 133 miles away. The list of hubs, however, continues to lengthen as the Texas Department of State Health Services adds more rural locations.
"We think we would qualify. We have a plan in place," Thompson said.
Plans have been drafted to use CHRISTUS St. Michael Hospital as a site for large-scale vaccinations and Texarkana College School of Nursing faculty and students to supplement the health care workforce needed to inoculate large numbers of people.
Texas is in Phase 1 of of its vaccination plan. Front-line healthcare workers and residents at long-term care facilities qualify for vaccination under Phase 1A of the plan. People over age 65 or who have a chronic medical condition that increases risk for severe illness from COVID-19 qualify under Phase 1B.
Each Tuesday, the state learns from the federal government how many vaccine doses it will be allocated for the following week, Howell said. Local officials learn the following Monday how many doses the state in turn will allocate to them.
This week, Bowie County received 400 additional doses, enough to complete Phase 1A vaccinations and begin vaccinating 1B-qualified residents who have added their names to a waiting list maintained by the Texarkana-Bowie County Family Health Center. About 1,500 people were on the list as of Tuesday afternoon.
The number of positive coronavirus cases in Bowie County has trended down over the last five to six days, Texarkana Fire Chief and Emergency Management Coordinator Eric Schlotter told the City Council in a briefing during its meeting Monday. Of 481 tests conducted in the previous week, less than 5% were positive, but there has been a "higher than normal spike" of positives among residents of a local long-term care facility, he said.
An early December letter from TDSHS notified Howell that hospitalizations in the eight-county region have exceeded 15% of capacity for seven consecutive days, meaning elective medical procedures must stop, bars must close and restaurants will be restricted to 50% capacity until hospitalizations in the area remain under 15% capacity for seven consecutive days.
President Joe Biden has promised to ramp up national vaccine manufacture and distribution efforts, setting a goal of at least 100 million inoculations in his first 100 days in office. On Monday, Biden said it would likely be the spring before every American who wants the vaccine can get it.
(For more information, call the Texarkana-Bowie County Family Health Center's coronavirus vaccination line at 903-255-5566.)