Smaller communities begin to receive coronavirus vaccine shipments

COMAL COUNTY, Texas — Boxes full of hope and the coronavirus vaccine are beginning to arrive in smaller communities throughout Texas.

Health officials in Comal County confirm some doses have already arrived and thousands more are expected in the next few days.

San Antonio and other Texas cities have been underway at vaccinating frontline workers over the last week while smaller surrounding towns in the Hill Country have been waiting their turn.

Now, Comal County finds itself as a recipient of vaccine deliveries in Texas's second week of distribution efforts. 

The shipments will go to 11 providers, including several Christus facilities in New Braunfels and H-E-B pharmacies in the area. Those facilities will receiving between 100 and 2,000 doses each in the first allotment. 

“There has been 3,700 doses allotted to different providers in Comal County,” said Cheryl Fraser, public health director for Comal County. “Five hundred of those have already been received and the (other) 3,200 vaccines are expected either this week or next week. There's two different deliveries coming.”

These doses are still set aside for healthcare workers.

Some agencies are partnering up to share any extra doses with medical staff who haven’t received their shipment yet.

Providers with leftover doses can contact Comal County Public Health to be matched up with another facility in need.

Fraser explained in a briefing to county commissioners Tuesday that vaccines are also coming into the area another way.

“Those numbers do not include the nursing homes that have partnered with the big box pharmacies,” she said. “That's a different system that we cannot see. We do know that they are also getting vaccines to provide to the local nursing homes.”

All 11 providers on the list are getting the Moderna vaccine, which does not require the special freezers needed to store Pfizer doses.

Locations allocated coronavirus vaccines in Comal County:

1. Briggs Family Medicine, New Braunfels: 100 doses
2. Brookshires Pharmacy, Canyon Lake: 200 doses
3. Christus Promptu Urgent Care, New Braunfels:  2,000 doses
4. Christus Santa Rosa Hospital, New Braunfels: 500 doses
5. Christus Trinity Clinic, New Braunfels: 200 doses
6. Comal County Public Health, New Braunfels: 200 doses
7. HEB Pharmacy Hwy 46, New Braunfels: 100 doses
8. HEB Pharmacy Hwy 46, Spring Branch: 100 doses
9. HEB Pharmacy N I-35, New Braunfels: 100 doses
10. HEB Pharmacy S Walnut, New Braunfels: 100 doses
11. Madison Lowry MD, New Braunfels: 300 doses