AUSTIN, Texas — Texas is set to receive more than 1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine this month, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Wednesday.
Gov. Abbott said the CDC made an initial allotment of 1.4 million doses to the State of Texas for the month of December. He said the vaccines should start arriving the week of Dec. 14 and will be distributed to qualifying providers.
Gov. Abbott said those who receive the initial doses will be based on the Vaccine Distribution Principles developed by the state's Expert Vaccine Allocation Panel. Additional allotments may be made later this month, and increased allotments are expected starting in January.
"The State of Texas is already prepared for the arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine and will swiftly distribute these vaccines to Texans who voluntarily choose to be immunized," Gov. Abbott said. "As we await the first shipment of these vaccines, we will work with communities to mitigate the spread of COVID-19."
On Tuesday, Texas' Department of State Health Services reported a new single-day high of COVID-19 cases with 15,182 and 170 newly reported deaths. The average number of daily cases have nearly doubled in the last 30 days. In November, Texas averaged more than 8,372 new COVID-19 cases per In October, the state averaged more than 4,340 cases a day.