By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Over the course of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Val Verde County has held more than 160 vaccination clinics and provided more than 89,000 vaccines to area residents.
Val Verde County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. spoke to Val Verde County Commissioners Court about the county’s efforts to vaccinate as many members of the community as possible during a meeting Sept. 13.
Discussion of topics related to COVID-19 has been a standing item on the court’s agenda for more than a year-and-a-half, and at the meeting, Owens gave his court colleagues a handout enumerating the actions the county has taken during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the County Emergency Management Coordinator Rowland Garza prepared the handout.
“This is a snapshot of what the county, that is, us, all of us, have done since 2020 through May 2022,” Owens told the court.
The list began with the vaccine clinics.
“The clinics, that the hospital helped with and Val Verde County, then Val Verde County by itself, there were 21 clinics at the (Del Rio) Civic Center,” Owens said.
Owens said there also were five drive-through vaccine clinics at the Val Verde County Community Center, four run by the county and one held with the assistance of the National Guard.
There have been 86 vaccine clinics held in Plaza Del Sol Mall, 26 with the county as the provider and 60 held in collaboration with the National Guard.
“Comstock and the San Felipe Del Rio school districts, between the county and what the National Guard helped us with, there were 10 clinics,” the county judge said.
In total, there have been 165 COVID-19 vaccine clinics in the county.
Owens said a total of 89,358 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Val Verde County by the end of May, including first and second doses and boosters.
One hundred first and second vaccine doses have been administered to children five to 11 years of age, and 1,293 first and second vaccine doses have been administered to children 12 to 15 years of age.
A total of 621 first and second doses of the vaccine were administered to teens ages 16 to 17.
A total of 16,751 first and second vaccine doses were administered to Val Verde County residents 18 years of age and older, Owens said.
Of the more than 89,000 doses administered, an estimated 25,000 were administered in collaboration with the National Guard.
“In partnering with our sister city next door, a total of 1,215 first doses have been administered to persons 18 years of age and older, and a total of 935 second doses were administered to persons 18 years of age and older, so about 2,100 of those 89,000 doses went to help people in Ciudad Acuña,” Owens said.
Owens again reminded the court that none of the COVID-19 response would have been possible with its members acting in concert.
“All of this started for us in March 2020, and the very first action that the court took was to set aside a couple hundred thousand dollars to have funds and move forward to hire a public health authority and hire staff to help them. This was something that was really impressive, I thought,” Owens added.
He then recounted several of his most vivid memories from early in the pandemic, including members of a family who sought permission to travel to San Antonio to watch their mother die.
“We’re still going through it, but the numbers have started going down,” the county judge said.
No action was taken following the presentation.
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