US Texas to build COVID-19 hubs to speed up vaccination

HOUSTON - US Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Monday the state government is working hard to build large COVID-19 vaccination hubs in an effort to get Texans vaccinated as quickly as possible.

Abbott traveled to Arlington in northern Texas on Monday to tour a mass COVID-19 vaccination site. Speaking at the site, Abbott said the state is moving from a smaller vaccination administration model to a hub model aimed at vaccinating a large number of people at larger sites, local media reported.

He said the state is opening 28 large-scale vaccination centers in big cities and 206 smaller-scale vaccination centers concentrating on rural communities, said the report.

"It allows communities to have several locations capable of vaccinating thousands of people in a single day," Abbott said, adding "The only limitation that we now face is the limitation of supply."

As of Monday, 2,067,900 doses of vaccines have been distributed across Texas, according to Abbott. Of that, 877,815 doses have been administered to Texans.

He explained why there is a difference between the number of doses that have been provided across the state and the number of doses that have been administered in the state.

"There is lag time. It typically takes two days for that information to be input into the system and for it to be received by the state for it to be reported," he said.

Abbott gave another reason for the different numbers, saying that some providers are holding doses for the second dose to someone who has already received the first one.

"We have been working with providers to help them understand that they don't need to hold doses because we receive weekly additional doses of the vaccines," he said.

Each week of January, the state is expected to receive 310,000 first doses and up to 500,000 second doses, he said.