More than half of all age-eligible Bexar County residents have gotten at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and nearly a third have been fully vaccinated.
Those local milestones came Monday as the White House announced anyone in the U.S. who’s 16 or older can get vaccinated. In Texas, all adults have been eligible to get inoculated since March 29.
If you haven’t gotten your shot yet, it has never been easier to book an appointment with vaccine supply growing in abundance. University Health has available appointments at wecandoitsa.com, or you can just walk up to any of the hospital system’s three sites: Wonderland of the Americas mall, St. Philip’s College, or the Robert B. Green Campus in downtown San Antonio.
No appointments are available at the City of San Antonio mass vaccination center, located at the Alamodome, but the site is available for drive-up vaccinations Tuesdays through Saturdays from 2 to 5 p.m.
If none of those options work for you, I was able to find dozens of providers with the vaccine in stock within just a few miles of my home by using vaccinefinder.org.
Nationwide, more than half of all U.S. adults have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. But amid an ongoing inquiry into the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and its purported association with six cases of blood clotting among women, and as most of the country sees a plateauing trend line of coronavirus cases, public health officials worry a combination of complacency and hesitation will stymie efforts to end the pandemic.
In Chile, where two-fifths of the public have received at least one dose of the vaccine, COVID-19 is surging. However, an overwhelming majority of Chileans received the Chinese inoculant CoronaVac, which has been found to be less effective than the vaccines administered in the U.S., for example.
In Michigan, where nearly a third of residents are fully vaccinated, case levels surged to a new high this month. Even with a significant portion of its inhabitants inoculated, hospitalizations and deaths have shot up, too.
The percentage of positive coronavirus tests in Bexar County declined 0.2 percentage points, from 2.4% last week to 2.2% this week.
Disconcertingly, the local COVID-19 patient count has risen by almost 40 since last Wednesday. Pandemic fatigue is real, and many of us are feeling it. But for the sake of the greater good, we still have to make the small sacrifice of wearing our masks and social distancing in public.
