White House Partners With Texas To Open New COVID-19 Vaccine Mega Centers In Dallas, Arlington
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) — The White House has partnered with the State of Texas to build two new major Community Vaccination Centers in North Texas.
The new sites will be at Fair Park in Dallas and AT&T Stadium in Arlington. There is also a third center opening in Houston. Together, the sites will be capable of administering more than 10,000 shots per day.
The White House is sending federal teams to work hand-in-hand with state and local jurisdictions. As it stands, the mega vaccine centers are expected to be up and running beginning the week of February 22. Officials say they will announce registration details for appointments at the locations soon.
The new sites in Texas were identified using a range of criteria, most central to those is the CDC's Social Vulnerability Index. This tool was created to help emergency response planners and public health officials identify and map communities that will most likely need support before, during, and after a hazardous event. The index takes into consideration data including socioeconomic status, household size, minority status, spoken languages, housing type and transportation.
The goal of establishing the joint federal centers is to continue to expand the rate of vaccinations in an efficient, effective and equitable manner, with a focus on making sure that communities with a high risk of COVID-19 exposure and infection are not left behind.
Dallas County is one of the hardest hit communities in the state with more than 210,000 people having tested positive for COVID-19 and over 2,400 losing their life as a result of the pandemic. The numbers in Tarrant County are equally as bad with more than 190,000 having tested positive and nearly 2,500 deaths.