MCKINNEY (WBAP/KLIF) – Collin County stands ready to open COVID- vaccination centers, but is awaiting the arrival of more vaccine doses.
The Collin County Commissioners court voted Monday to contract with Curative Medical Associates for the mega-site locations and mobile clinics. According to the county, Curative has been running large-scale COVID-19 testing operations since last spring, and is set up to administer publicly allotted doses of vaccine under the guidelines set by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and vaccine manufacturers.
During Monday’s Commissioners Court meeting, Curative representatives told court members that they were capable of delivering up to 6,000 doses per day for each mega-site. The company is capable of administering both Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
County Judge Chris Hill said the limitation the county is facing is vaccine availability.
As of Monday, Collin County had received and administered its initial shipment of 1,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine that arrived in late December from the Department of State Health Services. In partnership with cities and towns across Collin County, the county set up a vaccine wait list last week that grew to more than 83,000 by Monday morning.
Curative will utilize the countywide vaccine wait list to notify residents of mega-site or mobile clinic locations and times when the state makes supplies available.
In a joint letter sent Tuesday to Commissioner John Hellerstedt of Texas’ Department of State Health Services, the Collin County Commissioners Court and the Collin County legislative delegation appealed to the state to provide additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to Collin County as soon as possible.
The letter states that Collin County and its public/private partners are ready and able to host a mega-center for large scale vaccine distribution available to all Texans starting immediately.
“I and our legislative delegation are working diligently with the leadership of Collin County and with the Department of State Health Services to attack COVID-19 head-on,” said Representative Jeff Leach, “including ensuring that Collin County citizens have quick and efficient access to vaccinations. Those citizens expect, demand and deserve nothing less.”
According to County Judge Chris Hill, “The Commissioners and I have been planning strategically with our legislative delegation, our cities, our school districts, and private sector partners to ensure that Collin County is ready and able to distribute both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to our community as early and as quickly as possible. We absolutely need the state to join our partnership and provide the vaccines to Collin County.”
Hill said the partnership, which includes Collin County, 25 cities and towns across the county, Collin College, McKinney ISD, Frisco ISD, Plano ISD, and private sector providers, stands ready to immediately administer up to 2,000 vaccine doses per day, and has the capacity to ramp up to 6,000 doses per day at each location by January 25.
According to the county, the partnering agencies have already secured multiple locations suitable for vaccine mega-centers and have already established a waiting list of over 86,000 citizens seeking the vaccine. The vaccine waiting list hosted by Collin County is open to all Texans who are eligible according to the DSHS Phase 1A and Phase 1B definitions. The only element missing from the operational plan is the vaccine itself, which is provided at the sole discretion of DSHS.
DSHS previously announced that 200,000 doses of the vaccine would be distributed across the state this week, but none of those doses were allocated for Collin County. Additionally, DSHS has not yet committed any future doses for Collin County and its local partners.
Listen to Clayton Neville’s story below:
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