Dear Neighbors,
Tuesday morning City Council held a special called joint meeting with the Travis County Commissioners Court to receive a COVID-19 briefing from our public health authorities, Interim Austin-Travis County Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott and Austin Public Health Director Stephanie Hayden-Howard. The conversation focused on the status of and improvements to vaccine distribution, the severity of our situation, and the choices we each can make to keep our community safe.
As you know, Austin has begun to receive doses of the vaccine. Like elsewhere in the country, however, available vaccine supplies remain extremely limited. At this time, Austin has received only enough vaccine to serve less than 2% of the population. Many of us are anxious to get vaccinated and move our community past this pandemic, but we must remain patient until the state distributes more vaccine doses, and we must first prioritize vulnerable populations and our first responders.
I know many of you or your loved ones are seeking greater clarity on the process for signing up for a vaccination. I want to acknowledge that changing information from local, state, and federal authorities has proved challenging and frustrating at times. Please note that directions may shift from week to week as supply varies and especially as supply increases in coming months.
In the meantime I would like to provide a roadmap of next steps for where we are this week.
At the moment, Austin Public Health is vaccinating individuals who meet the definitions for Texas DSHS-outlined Phase 1A and Phase 1B. You can register through APH whether or not you are insured. This week APH is the hub for our community and the main supplier for first doses. APH successfully supplied over 12,000 doses last week and received an additional large supply having demonstrated an ability to deliver in that quantity.
Over 137,000 people have pre-registered for the vaccine through Austin Public Health’s website, and due to the limited supply, APH currently does not have any available vaccine appointments. Appointments are tied with vaccine supplies and become available as we receive additional allotments from the state. Residents are still encouraged to pre-register at AustinTexas.gov/covid19-vaccines so they can be notified when appointments become available.
If you successfully pre-registered through the Austin Public Health website, you will receive an email when an appointment is available for you. If you have not yet received an email, it is because of one of the three following circumstances:
You are not in Group 1A or Group 1B and thus are not yet eligible.
You are eligible (in Group 1A or Group 1B) but not highest priority among those groups.
You are eligible and in the highest priority group, but all available appointments are now filled.
As APH continues to receive vaccine doses, it will draw from this database to set appointments. Note the vaccine registration system is the same as the COVID-19 testing system, so if you’ve tested for COVID-19 through APH, your account information is the same. If you’ve created an APH Covid account and experience problems logging in, add “.aph” to the end of your email address in the “User Name” box (example: firstname.lastname@gmail.com.aph).
If a resident does not have internet access, they can call 3-1-1 to register for the vaccine. Please help communicate this to your friends, family and neighbors. If you have already received the first round of vaccine from your healthcare provider, you must return to that provider for the second round once it becomes available to them. Please stay in contact with your healthcare provider to know when they receive more vaccine doses.
As the state map indicates, clinics and pharmacies such as CVS, Walgreens, and H-E-B are or will also be vaccine providers; you will need to call or email these providers to determine whether they have vaccine doses available and if you can schedule an appointment. Although most don’t yet have enough vaccine for those in the 1B category, H-E-B and some of the other facilities have created online waiting lists, and I would encourage you to register if you fall within the 1B category.
In our briefing, Dr. Escott and Director Hayden-Howard informed us that they are developing an outreach plan for hard to reach populations, and we expect an update later this week on their efforts to reach individuals 65+ who live at home. Additionally, they announced that all vaccine sites have interpreters available and accommodations are made so that elderly individuals and those with mobility challenges do not have to wait in line. I encourage you to read their latest memo for more details about vaccine efforts thus far. Please note that the “hub” model the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) has used for the first weeks of vaccine distribution was a pilot program and the state has not yet announced how it will distribute vaccines moving forward, though APH is hopeful it will receive more vaccine soon.
Dr. Escott also took Council and the Commissioners Court through the latest COVID-19 case data. The 7-day moving average for new cases, hospitalizations, and ICU capacity recently reached record highs, and 22% of the hospital beds in our Trauma Service Area are being used for COVID-19 patients. Since I last wrote you, Austin Public Health also announced the opening of the infusion center and alternate care site.
Though we are still in the Stage 5 risk category, the data projections from UT are starting to show a possible flattening of the curve. This means we must continue to stay home when possible, wear a mask, wash our hands, and physically distance from others in order to continue the downward trend. Dr. Escott also noted that one way we increase our capacity to deliver vaccines is to slow the spread of the disease; many of the same people who provide testing and care for COVID patients are the same people who administer vaccines. You can view Dr. Escott’s slides here and watch the briefing here.
As a reminder, APH frequently updates their COVID-19 vaccine website and releases a weekly vaccine fact sheet every Tuesday in English and Spanish. Please check this website regularly for new information and follow Austin Public Health on Facebook and Twitter to see more updates. My office also will continue to send out important updates and information as we receive them.
I want to underscore that we anticipate changes in priorities and challenges with vaccine distribution to shift over time. Currently, we are focused on prioritizing those who need the vaccine the most and the most vulnerable and operating under conditions where demand vastly outstrips supply. As we move into the spring and supplies increase, the focus will change to getting more people to want to take the vaccine. As noted above, we anticipate that over time additional providers and hubs will be activated.
We must come together as a community to navigate the challenges we face with vaccine distribution and to prioritize the protection of our most vulnerable neighbors. I deeply appreciate your patience as our health providers work to distribute our limited vaccine supply and provide accurate and up-to-date information for our community.
In this newsletter, you’ll find information for an upcoming District 10 community conversation on reimagining public safety, details on how to apply to serve on a City board/commission, an opportunity to provide feedback on some transportation initiatives, and more.
Stay safe,
Alison Alter
Council Member, District 10
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