The following stats with the number of cases and number of vaccines given were shared by the city of Garland Health Department at the Monday, March 15, City Council work session.
- The following stats were shared during the March 15 City Council Work Session:
- The number of confirmed cases is 26,832
- The number of people who have recovered is 25,958
- There are 522 active cases.
- There have been 352 deaths.
- City Health Department has received 9,500 first doses and administered 7,468 of those.
- GHD has received 5,000 second doses and administered 4,944
- People 50 and over (Group 1C) became eligible for vaccines March 15.
- There are 1,651 providers of vaccines in Texas.
GISD vaccines
Also at the work session, Robert Selders, president of the GISD board of trustees, addressed the council regarding GISD personnel receiving invitations to get vaccines and then being canceled.
He said that the district supported the city when they asked to use the Homer B. Johnson Stadium parking lot as a vaccine location. In addition, Selders said that the district has always known that all GISD personnel was “front line essential workers whose jobs are critical to the continued functioning of society and our community and that they should have been a priority as such for vaccine distribution.”
They were happy when Biden said to make school personnel eligible immediately. The city made an initial offer of 500 vaccines and a dedicated vaccine slot March 10 for GISD employees. The offer was accepted in good faith.
District employees scheduled vaccine appointments and were sent a written confirmation from the city. The confirmations said that their vaccine appointments were scheduled. Some employees then canceled vaccine appointments they had elsewhere. Then, the city withdrew the offer.
Selders asks city to honor offer
Selders said that the city should honor that initial offer.
Deputy City Manager Mitch Bates and City Manager Bryan Bradford took responsibility for the situation and explained that they recognized a need to delay the vaccine event pending more discussion.
“I had the last say and quite frankly we just got out ahead of the council,” Bradford said.
So, they felt a need to ask the district for another week so they could get a council consensus on the plan.
“If anybody in the public wants to be angry at someone, they should be angry at me, certainly not council,” Bradford said.
After discussion, the council voted to proceed with the original plan:
Of the 2,200 vaccines the city had available Thursday, March 18, 1,700 of the shots would go to people on the existing waiting list for Group 1B, educators and Group 1C. The remaining 500 doses would go to GISD personnel as defined by state and federal departments of health.
For future vaccine events, a portion of “no-show” vaccines will be given to GISD staff. The future numbers will vary depending on the weekly number of no-shows.
Please note:
The city, in an effort to clean up its waiting list, posted the following on its website.
If you are on Garland’s COVID-19 vaccine waiting list, we are sending messages asking you to confirm your need to remain on our list. This process should shorten wait times for those on the list. Follow message instructions to confirm your list status. Respond to the message by the end of this week or your name will be removed. If you have already responded to a previous confirmation message, you’ll not receive another at this time.
Additionally, the city is coordinating with GISD to facilitate vaccinations for school personnel in compliance with updated state and federal guidelines.
If you receive a vaccine from another source, email GPH@GarlandTX.gov or call 972-205-3900 to remove your name from our list. This will enable us to more quickly vaccinate qualified people.