AUSTIN – Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Division of Emergency Management today announced the creation of the State Mobile Vaccine Pilot Program to ramp up COVID-19 vaccination efforts in underserved areas of Texas. As part of this pilot program, state mobile vaccination teams made up of Texas National Guard personnel will be deployed to five rural Texas counties — DeWitt, Marion, Real, Sherman, and Starr — to administer vaccinations to qualified Texans in those communities. Texas National Guard teams are prepared to begin vaccinations on Thursday and the Texas Division of Emergency Management is actively working with county officials to schedule their deployment.     

“The State Mobile Vaccine Pilot Program will help us ramp up vaccination efforts among homebound Texans, Texans 65 years of age or older, and among communities in need,” said Governor Abbott. “I thank TDEM, the Texas National Guard, as well as our participating city and county officials for working together on this important project. We will continue to develop strategies to vaccinate more Texans and keep our communities safe.”

Resources deployed to assist communities

Governor Greg Abbott today announced that the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has deployed 80 military medical personnel from the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force to assist in the COVID-19 response in Abilene, Lufkin, and Eagle Pass. The military medical personnel include nurses, respiratory therapists, and medical doctors, and will support Hendrick Medical Center in Abilene, CHI St. Luke’s Health – Memorial Hospital in Lufkin, and Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center in Eagle Pass. 

“Thank you to our partners at the Department of Defense for supporting Texas’ COVID-19 response by providing these additional resources to Abilene, Lufkin, and Eagle Pass,” said Governor Abbott. “The medical personnel deployed to our communities will provide much needed support to our front line healthcare workers.”