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Austin Public Health officials said they were forced to cancel all coronavirus vaccine and testing appointments scheduled for Tuesday because of the severe winter weather that has impacted most of Texas.
Local health officials have also had to cancel vaccination appointments because of the extreme weather.
2,300 COVID-19 vaccine appointments for Saturday in Austin have been canceled but new appointments will be scheduled for next week.
APH has started an “equity phone line” to reach people in these groups to help ensure they get vaccinated. Director Stephanie Hayden-Howard said APH is also working with local leaders and organizations to help improve efforts.
Black leaders in Travis County said they worry that Austin Public Health is not taking the right steps to equitably offer vaccines to residents of color after data released by the agency show some populations are grossly underserved. The dashboard on Thursday showed that Black residents make up 7.6% of Travis County's total population, but are just 3.4% of Austin Public Health's recipients for the first dose of coronavirus vaccine during the first week in February, the period for the most recent data available. White residents make up 68.2% of the population and received 65.4% of the...