Travis County will receive significantly fewer COVID vaccine doses next week as demand falls

Fifty-six Travis County providers are set to receive nearly 50,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, a decrease of nearly 30,000 doses compared to last week's allocation.

For the first time since being designated by the Texas Department of State Health Services as one of two hub providers in Travis County, Austin Public Health will not receive any doses. As vaccine eligibility has expanded, the department and some other local providers have reported declining demand, prompting more community outreach and a shift to walk-up clinic models.

Seton Medical Center, which provides doses to the Central Texas Vaccine Collaborative's weekend drive-thru clinic at the Circuit of the Americas, and the University of Texas at Austin, Travis County's second hub provider, will receive the largest allocations next week: 11,700 and 5,850 doses, respectively.

The local providers due to receive the largest allocations, after Seton Medical Center and UT Austin, are:

• Austin Diagnostic Clinic Travel Clinic (1,170 doses)
• South Austin Medical Clinic (1,170 doses)
• Vina Pharmacy (1,170 doses)
• Walgreen Pharmacy on Wells Branch Parkway (1,170 doses)
• Walgreens Pharmacy on William Cannon Drive (1,170 doses)
• Walgreens Pharmacy on West Anderson Lane (1,170 doses)

Providers for this week's allocation include area private practices, medical clinics and pharmacies, which will receive 100 to 1,170 first doses apiece. A full list of Travis County recipients and how many vaccines they are receiving can be found here. A list of local providers offering appointments to 16- and 17-year-olds can be found here.

On Friday, vaccine advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted to recommend resuming use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, whose use federal agencies paused after six recipients—out of more than 7.2 million—developed blood clots, including one case in Texas.

"With the Johnson & Johnson vaccine again recommended for use in the United States, the federal government is expected to make doses of that vaccine available to states as early as this weekend," according to a DSHS press release. If this happens, the state health department could see its allocation increase.

With this latest allocation, Travis County will have received 884,315 initial or single doses. As of early Friday afternoon, more than half of the county population 16 and older had received at least one dose and nearly one-third were fully vaccinated, according to DSHS.