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Starr County health authority signs off on J&J COVID-19 vaccine

3 years 2 weeks 2 days ago Tuesday, March 02 2021 Mar 2, 2021 March 02, 2021 10:48 PM March 02, 2021 in News - Local

Starr County health officials signed off on paperwork to receive Johnson and Johnson's single shot COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday.

Nearly 24,000 doses of J&J's vaccine arrived in Houston, Dallas and Arlington on Tuesday and more than 200,000 doses are scheduled to be allocated throughout Texas next week.

Starr County Health Authority Dr. Antonio Falco said the county has collected and signed the necessary paperwork to receive the latest COVID-19 vaccine.

READ ALSO: Abbott requests major disaster declaration for Starr County – again  

But getting vaccines to Starr County took some time at first. 

Falcon said the county had to constantly apply to the Texas Department of State Health and Human Services in order to receive more COVID-19 vaccines. 

"We finally were able to give large numbers of vaccines to our community," Falcon said. "This past weekend, all of the different entities involved gave over 4,000 vaccines. That's the largest ever given in our community since the start of the vaccination process."

Falcon said the county is ready for the additional help. With it, they plan to target residents who are homebound due to health issues. 

RELATED: DHR Health expecting Johnson & Johnson vaccine shipment  

He said the fact that J&J's vaccine only requires one dose helps. 

"We're definitely excited about Johnson & Johnson because that gives us the opportunity to vaccinate people once and that completes the vaccination process for them," Falcon said. 

The county is still waiting to hear on when they will be getting the new vaccine. 

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