Border Counties Once Inundated With COVID-19 Now Lead in Vaccinations

All the border counties were a nightmare as far as COVID-19 was concerned but now they are leading the state in COVID-19 vaccines.

According to the Texas Tribune, from El Paso to Brownsville, counties along the border are leading the state in COVID-19 vaccinations after leading the state just months ago in COVID-19 infections.

Every county along the border is above the state average for vaccinations with more than a third of the 39 counties above the state average being border counties.

Across the state, 35% of residents are fully vaccinated. In the Rio Grande Valley the counties there have 40-50% of their residents fully vaccinated.

The best motivation for getting the vaccine in the border counties is the fact that the region suffered so much loss from COVID-19.

El Paso County had almost 3,000 residents die from COVID-19 as did Hidalgo County who saw one in every ten statewide COVID-19 deaths last summer happened in their county.

“Everybody knew someone that had died from COVID here in this region,” said Dr. Michael Dobbs, Vice Dean of Clinical Affairs at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine. “I think there were very few people who were COVID skeptics or deniers.”

“I’m proud, but more than anything else, I’m grateful,” said Dr. Ivan Melendez, Hidalgo County Health Authority and a survivor of COVID-19. “All the pre-vaccine hype about how minorities were more hesitant to get the vaccine than the rest of the population hasn’t really panned out.”

The vaccine is important to getting the state and the country back to normal so if you have not gotten yours yet, please get an appointment set up to get it.

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