Vaccines making impact, but still a long way to go

TYLER — The state of Texas still has a ways to go before getting to the estimated 70% to 80% level of vaccines needed for herd immunity. The Northeast Texas Health District President George Roberts told KTBB news, “I think everybody is kind of watching to see as more and more people get vaccinated, what is the impact of the positive case count, as well as the hospitalizations. We are seeing very positive trends on that in our local market here in east Texas. Our case counts are going down each day. The number of people hospitalized from COVID are going down. We are seeing very positive results so far.”

According to census numbers to get to overall protection from COVID-19, it would require vaccinating 22 million Texans, or nearly 100% of adults in the state, since children are not eligible. Roberts continued, “Right now we are seeing more and more supply coming in. Not only at the Northeast Texas Health District, but UT Health, CHRISTUS is getting more in some of their outlying areas. We are are seeing our local more pharmacy’s are getting more. So, more and more vaccine is becoming available to the general public.”