North Texas Leaders Looking For Ways To Increase COVID-19 Vaccination Efforts
LEWISVILLE, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - With vaccine waiting lists growing, North Texas leaders are looking to Washington, D.C. for help.
Newly elected congresswoman Beth Van Duyne visited three vaccination sites in North Texas on Friday to see what else the federal government can do.
The vaccination center inside the public safety complex in Fort Worth is seeing 600 to 700 people a day. A drive-thru site in Lewisville is seeing 3,000.
They have developed spaces, staff and tracking systems and have room for more appointments. But they need the doses.
"Supply's going to be an issue. We need to do whatever we can, I think in the federal government, state government," Van Duyne said.
Supply was one of the key issues local officials communicated to the freshman congresswoman of Texas's 24th congressional district.
Van Duyne described her trio of vaccine site visits as educational, trying to figure out where Washington would be able to do more.
"It's not a one-size fits all solution. What do each of the counties, what are they experiencing? Is it an issue with their county, issues with the state, issues with logistics, not having enough vaccine?" she said.
Local leaders indicated it's all of those points at times, especially managing distribution and manpower. But the conversation often turned back to the limited supply.
Van Duyne specially mentioned one possible federal area of assistance could be through the use of federal properties for vaccination sites.
She said the government needs to do more to improve the distribution.
"It is a logistical nightmare as you can imagine, trying to make sure eight million people are vaccinated," Van Duyne said.
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