Nearly 50,000 sign up on Dallas County vaccine registry in two days

Only two days after Dallas County’s health department launched a website to let residents register for COVID-19 vaccines, nearly 50,000 people have signed up, the county’s health director said Monday.

The site, which opened Saturday, is signing up people in Dallas County who qualify for phases 1A and 1B of the vaccine rollout. Phase 1A includes health care workers and people who live in long-term care facilities. Phase 1B includes people who are 65 and older, or who are 16 and older and have at least one underlying condition that puts them at higher risk of complications from COVID-19, such as cancer, diabetes or pregnancy.

The county is still working to vaccinate people in Phase 1A and vaccine supplies remain extremely limited, said Dr. Philip Huang, the health director.

When more doses arrive — which Huang said he hopes will be soon — health officials can begin working through the registration list to vaccinate more eligible residents.

Opening the registration to lower-priority groups will depend on how quickly additional doses become available.

State officials have estimated immunizations may be available to the general public in the spring.

“We all want to get this vaccine out,” Huang said, but with a limited number of doses now, officials are trying “to get it to the people where it’s going to make the biggest impact.”

He added that local officials are working with the Department of State Health Services on a system that will let residents see which providers have doses available. More than 700 providers in Dallas County have signed up, he said.

Residents who qualify to be vaccinated now may register with the county health department at dallascounty.org/covid-19/covid-19-vaccination.php and will be notified of the next step as more vaccines become available.

Parkland progress

Parkland Health and Hospital System said Monday that it had administered about 50% of its nearly 21,000 vaccine doses. And usage is set to go up dramatically now that health care workers will begin getting their recommended booster shots this week.

Parkland’s staff also has started working with the Dallas County health department to administer the vaccine to other priority groups such as first responders, said Francesco Mainetti, Parkland’s vice president of transformational initiatives.

Later this week Parkland is expected to help the county provide shots to individuals who qualify for Phase 1B.

UT Southwestern update

UT Southwestern Medical Center began vaccinating patients Monday who fit the 1B criteria and was notifying patients when they would be eligible to schedule shots.

“The pace at which vaccinations occur will be dependent on the size and frequency of vaccine shipments, which remain dynamic and uncertain,” UT Southwestern said in a written statement.

The medical center said it had administered more than 11,000 vaccine doses to its workforce since it received its first shipment Dec. 15.

Shipments arriving

The state said Monday that it is allocating 14,400 more doses to vaccine providers across Dallas County in the coming week, including 3,000 to the Parkland hospital system.

Tarrant County providers will get 30,825 doses, while 4,900 are scheduled to go to Collin County and 4,000 to Denton County.

Providers in Rockwall County will get 900 doses, those in Kaufman County will get 500, 1,500 are scheduled for Ellis County and 1,100 for Johnson County.

Improvements across U.S.

Nationally, government officials have described the rate of vaccinations as disappointingly slow, but the pace has accelerated markedly in recent days.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, said over the weekend that 1.5 million shots were dispensed over 72 hours, bringing the running total to about 4 million.

In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio said 250 city-run COVID-19 vaccination sites will be set up this month in a push to administer 1 million vaccine doses by the end of January.

A little more than 100,000 people have been vaccinated in the city since the inoculations began Dec. 14. But de Blasio said Monday that immunizations will speed up now that people see that the two vaccines that have been approved for emergency use in the U.S. are safe.

Enormous demand

But many places continue to contend with a demand for vaccines that far outstrips the ability to supply them.

Lubbock’s Health Department was offering more vaccines Monday, but the number of people trying to book appointments overwhelmed the phone lines.

Last week, when vaccines were first available for residents who met the Phase 1B qualifications, the city’s phone lines crashed. The limited appointments for the day were booked within a few hours.

Before 8 a.m. Monday, the city announced it expected an unusually high call volume for appointments.

“This situation may cause some citizens to be unable to get through,” the city wrote. “The city is actively working to increase the phone capacity to handle larger call volumes.”

At 11 a.m., the health department announced all available vaccination appointments Monday had been booked.