MIDLAND, Texas — The state of Texas is changing its tune on how the COVID-19 vaccine is allocated.
Rather than give small quantities of the vaccine to all kinds of places like hospitals, pharmacies, and private practices, the state wants to give mass amounts of the vaccine to the community’s hospitals.
It's a change Midland Memorial Hospital welcomes.
“Up until this point distribution has been in small numbers," Russell Meyers, Midland Health, CEO said. "100-200 doses to pharmacies, to health departments, to others, who don’t have a large capacity to deliver large amounts of the vaccine. It has been haphazard.”
Governor Gregg Abbott announced the change in distribution strategy Monday.
“The vaccine advisory panel has determined, I think wisely, that distributing the vaccine in larger quantities to sites that can deliver the vaccine in larger quantities over time is the better policy for the state," Meyers said.
The state has already gotten to work on this.
“This past week, they allocated about 120 different sites around the state about 10,000 doses a site," Meyers said. "That’s a change in direction and one we are doing our best to respond to by preparing a plan to deliver that many doses a week here in Midland."
So more vaccines coming to Midland, but how exactly is that going to work?
Well, that is what the hospital and Midland County are trying to figure out.
“We don’t have a finished plan yet, there’s no way to register for it just yet," Meyers said. "But once we do we will have one or two sites set up and we will give the vaccine all day long."
Those in charge will be focusing on giving the vaccine to whatever healthcare workers are left and those over 65-years-old. There are about 18,000 people in Midland over 65.
Getting mass amounts of the vaccine would help complete Phase 1A and Phase 1B here.
By Thursday, Midland Memorial hopes to know when the mass amounts of the vaccine will arrive and what distribution would look like.