The Biden administration said Wednesday the federal government is building three mass-vaccination centers in Texas with the aim of getting 10,000 shots into arms per day.
The centers will be at Fair Park in Dallas and two National Football League sites — NRG Stadium in Houston and AT&T Stadium in Arlington. They will begin operating on Feb. 22.
Texas follows California in accepting help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to establish centers that can immunize thousands of people per day, as supply ramps up and states expand eligibility for the approved vaccines. Federally supported centers are operating in Oakland and Los Angeles.
White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients thanked Democratic members of the Texas delegation in Congress and key Republicans, including Gov. Greg Abbott and the late Rep. Ron Wright, who died Sunday at age 67 following a COVID-19 diagnosis.
Mr. Zients said the Texas push will help “communities hit hard by the pandemic.”
Nationwide, the rolling average of reported coronavirus cases is down to 108,000 per day from a peak of around 250,000 in the first week of January.
Transmission is still dangerously elevated but the improving picture puts case counts back at pre-Thanksgiving levels.
Hospital stays are falling as a result and daily deaths are beginning to decline, although well over 2,000 Americans are succumbing to the disease per day.
Experts aren’t sure why cases are declining, though they suspect people are staying home due to wintry weather, adhering to safety guidelines more strictly or beginning to see the benefit from natural immunity — many have been infected and recovered — and early vaccinations.
The U.S. is administrating an average of 1.5 million vaccine doses per day, up from 1.1 million two weeks ago, though experts say the country should shoot for 3 million as manufacturing improves and states open more sites.
“We have much more work to do. This is just the start,” Mr. Zients said.
In the meantime, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is imperative that every American wears a mask in public or at home if someone who doesn’t normally live there is present.
Director Rochelle Walensky said her agency will be issuing formal guidance to make sure people are wearing masks that fit snugly and offer optimal protection. She cited studies that found well-fitting masks blocked more aerosol particles, suggesting they could thwart more infectious droplets in the air.
“The bottom line is this — masks work and they work best when they have a good fit and are worn correctly,” Dr. Walensky said.
Also Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci said people who are immunosuppressed from certain drugs or steroids, like glucocorticoids, have questioned whether they should get the vaccine.
He said they should because they are at higher risk of ill effects from COVID-19.
“They are the very people who should get vaccinated,” said Dr. Fauci, director National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
He said it is possible they will not create as powerful of an immune response from the vaccine, but that’s far better than no response at all.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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