TRI-COUNTY — At Judge Cinderela Guevara’s weekly vaccine meeting, Presidio ISD Superintendent Ray Vasquez stood in front of a camera in his boardroom to ask a question about the vaccination rollout: “Is there any plan to come to Presidio?”
Vasquez wasn’t alone in wishing more vaccines were headed to his area. Across the region and the state, demand for vaccinations against COVID is still higher than the available supply. Preventative Care Health Services CEO Linda Molinar lamented the issue in response to Vasquez, saying, “Sadly to say for Presidio, we only received 100 [doses], and then recently, another 100 from the state.”
On the call, Terri Welborn the disaster preparedness coordinator at Midland Memorial Hospital had just presented about the 960 first-round doses they had been able to give to Fort Davis and Marfa in early February, as well as 400 doses PCHS was able to pick up from Midland Memorial and distribute themselves.
Without those doses shared from Midland, Molinar felt Presidio would be in even worse shape right now. In group 1B, the city of Presidio has vaccinated “600 people at the most” according to Molinar. “I know today we still have over 1,000 people in Presidio needing vaccines that would qualify under 1B,” she told officials at the meeting. “We have a huge percentage of people that would qualify under 65 with chronic conditions.”
“I think overall the problem is the state is not sending our community enough vaccinations,” she said. Molinar wanted to be delivering vaccines to homebound patients and to the 28 residents of Candelaria who had requested the shot, but the lack of shots was holding PCHS back.
At that point on the call, Welborn unmuted her microphone and chimed in. “I just got off the phone with our CEO,” she said. “He has allocated another 600 doses for Presidio.” Molinar said they could begin handing those out as early as Friday in Presidio.
On top of the 400 second doses for Fort Davis coming on Monday and the 560 second doses headed to Marfa on Tuesday, Welborn said, “We’ll also do another 600 for Alpine.” Welborn said as long as her hospital had vaccines to share, they would continue working with the tri-county.
While state allocations to Presidio have been scant, Marfa is seeing an influx of shots at the moment. Last week, 500 doses were committed to the Marfa Department of State Health Services office, with another 500 added this week.
But the winter storm conditions set back vaccine shipment and administration by roughly seven days, DSHS Associate Commissioner Imelda Garcia said. That delay led to a deluge of shots arriving in Marfa all at once: at press time on Wednesday, 500 vaccines from last week, 500 from this week, and an additional 200 second round shots were set to arrive all at once.
Some officials at the Tuesday meeting debated whether second-round doses were still being guaranteed, but Garcia from DSHS reaffirmed that the state is still promising second-round shots to every individual who received the first one. “We know in the past week second dose shipments have been delayed. We want to reassure everyone that your second dose will be there,” she said, urging patients to check with their provider before going in for the shot.
The Rio Grande Council of Governments launched http://farwtxvax.org/ this month to share information and resources with West Texas residents and offer details about how to sign up for the COVID vaccine.
Looking ahead, the state’s Expert Vaccine Allocation Panel is continuing discussions about who will be included in Phase 1C and when the state will expand vaccines beyond its 1A/1B criteria. On Wednesday, the FDA gave emergency approval to the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
| Presidio County | Brewster County | Jeff Davis County | |
| Number of People Vaccinated with at least One Dose | 1,580 | 1,955 | 659 |
| Number of People Fully Vaccinated | 222 | 367 | 59 |
| Estimated Population (16 years of age and older) | 5,069 | 7,706 | 2,180 |
| Percent of Estimated Population (16 years of age and older) fully vaccinated | 4.38% | 4.76% | 2.71% |
Data provided by the Department of State Health Services on Tuesday, February 23.
