AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Austin’s top health authority is offering coronavirus vaccines to Texas lawmakers and their key staffers, regardless of whether they are currently eligible under state guidelines.
Dr. Mark Escott, interim medical director for Austin Public Health, told The Dallas Morning News that he organized the vaccination effort with a local hospital health system.
He says he knows at least five to 10 legislators of both parties who were vaccinated through this process.
Escott says he’s concerned that the flood of lawmakers coming to Austin for the legislative session could make it a superspreader event and that he wants to ensure the continuity of government.
Meantime, across Texas more than 10,000 new cases of COVID-19 and 46 more deaths from the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, according to state health officials on Monday. The number of Texans hospitalized with COVID-19 rose to 13,858. Coronavirus hospitalizations remain near their record high in Texas.
The Texas Department of State Health Services says intensive-care units in several regions are at or near capacity. The department reported 10,110 more confirmed cases of the virus Monday, as well as 695 probable case.
Johns Hopkins University researchers say more than 17% of coronavirus tests have come back positive in Texas over the last week.