Austin Public Health expands vaccine appointments to 40-plus age group, officials say
Travis County residents who are at least 40 years old can now receive a coronavirus vaccine through Austin Public Health, according to the area s top health officials on Tuesday.
Austin Public Health Director Stephanie Hayden-Howard announced that the agency was expanding its vaccine eligibility this week after the demand for vaccination appointments for those in the Phase 1A, 1B and 1C sub-groups designated by the Texas Department of State Health Services had decreased.
Those three sub-groups include front-line health care workers, residents at long-term care facilities, people 65 and older, people 16 and older with a health condition, school and licensed child care personnel and people 50 to 64 years old.
Illustration by Texas Monthly; Birth certificate:
Calysta Images/Getty; Scale: Tetra Images/Getty
Shawna Hodgson was adopted as an infant in the seventies and, she says, “raised in a great family” in Houston. But despite her happy childhood, she always had an underlying need to know more about her birth family. When Hodgson became an adult, she decided to request a copy of her original birth certificate
, something she had always assumed she was entitled to receive, from the Texas Department of State Health Services’ vital statistics office. Her request was immediately denied.
“I didn’t know that my original birth certificate was sealed. I just kind of assumed they would hand that information over to me when I was [of age],” says Hodgson. “So imagine my surprise when I marched in there like, ‘I’m ready for my file,’ and they were like, ‘No, no, no. You don’t have the right to that.’”
Updated
Mar 17, 2021
At Least 57 Dead From Texas Winter Storm, Preliminary Report Says
State health officials said the toll could rise as they verify more deaths related to when Texas power grid failed amid the frigid weather.
At least 57 people died during the recent winter storms in Texas, according to preliminary data published Monday by state health authorities.
The Texas Department of State Health Services’ preliminary tally is for verified winter storm-related deaths that occurred between Feb. 11 and March 5, when the state’s power grid failed in response to an unprecedented level of winter weather in the South.
Officials counted 57 deaths in the preliminary report, 25 of which were in Harris County, which includes Houston. The next highest preliminary death count was in the much smaller Taylor County, which includes Abilene, with five fatalities.
As President Biden rolls back Trump-era immigration policies, some fear that a surge of migrants at the southern border will spread coronavirus across the country.