Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson asks the state to provide more COVID-19 vaccines

Mayor Eric Johnson is requesting more COVID-19 vaccines from the state to inoculate residents, saying the city can store up to 10,000 doses a week.

In a letter sent Monday to Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief W. Nim Kidd, Johnson notes the city has already been approved to distribute the vaccine and recently gave 2,000 doses provided by the state to city first responders. He said that model could be used to provide aid to others.

The need is “palpable” and there’s high demand for the vaccine in the state’s largest metro area, Johnson said. He mentioned more than 140,000 eligible residents registering to receive the vaccine by the time the city and county opened its largest joint vaccination site at Fair Park on Monday.

He noted that while Dallas County is the city’s public health provider, the city has the resources to help.

“We have COVID-19 testing sites. We have multiple viable public locations at which our residents could receive vaccinations, and we are prepared to do what is necessary to vaccinate as many people as we can,” Johnson said in the letter. “We have the will, if you provide us with the way.”

The city was approved as a COVID-19 vaccine provider in December and chose to prioritize giving shots to Dallas firefighters, paramedics, police officers and city marshals. The city received 2,000 Moderna vaccines from the state on Dec. 28, and began distributing them the next day to employees who drove through a parking garage at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. The city used all the doses by Jan. 5.

Rocky Vaz, Dallas’ emergency management director, said the city will receive at least another 2,000 doses to provide the required second shot to employees already inoculated starting in late January, but it’s unclear if the city will receive any more direct allocations.

Dallas still has more than 3,000 first responders who didn’t receive the vaccine from the city.

Vaz said in the meantime, those who fall into the Phase 1B pool — people who are 65 and over or any adult with a chronic medical condition could receive the vaccine through other sites like the one at Fair Park.