Vaccine Appointments Open To People Over 40: Austin Public Health

AUSTIN, TX — Austin Public Health this week announced it now allows all residents ages 40 and older to book appointments to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, along with childcare providers and teachers.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last month announced that all residents over the age of 16 are eligible to receive the vaccine. Even still, Austin Public Health is taking an incremental approach to its vaccine rollout to ensure higher-risk populations can grab their places in line.

It will also continue to be prioritized for people at a higher risk of being affected by the virus because "the demand for vaccine in these eligible groups is exceeding the supply of many providers across the Austin area," Austin Public Health said in a release.

Austin Public Health receives 12,000 doses of a coronavirus vaccine each week from the Texas Department of State Health Services, which it doles out by appointment.

Stephanie Hayden-Howard, director of Austin Public Health, told the Austin-American Statesman that the organization dropped its age limit because vaccine appointments were going unused.

With the new expansion underway, all the organization's appointments were taken by Monday night, according to the report.

TXDHS data as of Tuesday afternoon showed over 36 percent of Travis County residents over the age of 16 had received at least one dose of a vaccine against the deadly virus. Nearly 20 percent of residents are fully vaccinated.

In the 65 plus priority group, 48 percent are fully vaccinated, and over 66 percent have received at least one dose.