By Karen Gleason
An appointment-only COVID-19 vaccination event has been set for Saturday, Jan. 23, at the Del Rio Civic Center.
The event was announced Wednesday during the January regular term meeting of Val Verde County Commissioners Court.
“We have received our first allocation of the Pfizer vaccine,” Val Verde County/City of Del Rio Assistant Local Health Authority Dr. Laura Palau told the court.
Palau said the list of persons who will be invited to the vaccination event was drawn from those who signed up on the county and city web sites last week.
“We basically made a waiting list of 975 individuals, plus 50 more extra in case there are some people who don’t show up or we get some extra doses,” Palau said.
She said county and city staff will begin contacting those persons today.
“It will be an appointment-only event,” she added.
Palau told the county and city will be coordinating with the hospital to plan the event.
Val Verde County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. asked Palau to address the current COVID-19 numbers in the county.
“Are they going up? Are they going down? We’re consistent right now, right? We’re consistent, and the numbers are high,” Owens asked.
“I actually thought that things were going to start getting better in the second half of the month, but no, the numbers are still the same. We’re kind of in a peak, but reaching a plateau in the peak,” Palau replied.
“Which is not good,” Owens said.
“Which is not good,” Palau repeated.
She noted the contact tracers and staff working to release Val Verde County residents from quarantine are “overwhelmed” and working with more than 100 cases a day.
“We’re also trying to release 100-plus people every day, too, and trying to get them back to work as soon as possible,” Palau said.
