Texas 1C Announced

Effective March 15th, Texas will start offering vaccines to the newly announced Phase 1C group.

The new list of those eligible as of March 15th now includes:

• Phase 1A
  • Health Care Workers, including “last responders” (mortuary)
  • Residents of Long-Term Care Facilities
• Phase 1B
  • All 65+
  • Those 16 years old and older with at least one chronic medical condition that elevates their risk. To include but not limited to:
    • Cancer
    • Kidney disease
    • COPD
    • Heart conditions
    • Organ transplant recipients (I would assume living donors too, personally).
    • Obesity (30 kg/m²+)
    • Pregnancy
    • Sickle cell
    • Type 2 diabetes
• “Federal Directive” Phase
  • Pre-primary, primary, secondary (Pre-K through 12th Grade) workers.
  • Head Start/Early Head Start workers (teachers, staff, and bus drivers).
  • Licensed child care providers.
• Phase 1C, effective March 15
  • All 50+ years old.

Phase 2 and beyond classifications and timelines are to be determined.

While there are a lot of places to get the vaccine, I’ve seen the most success with Austin Public Health and UT Health Austin.

For Austin Public Health, pre-register on their website and follow them on Twitter or Facebook. They are releasing appointments for the week on Monday evenings and again on Thursday if they have available spots. From experience, if they say on social media they are opening the waiting room at 5:45 for a 6:00 p.m. drop, be there at 5:40. For me, those who joined at 5:55 p.m. were too late. With the drop on Monday, be prepared to wait for hours until your turn to get an appointment.

For UT Health Austin, see their website to request an appointment. For them, fill out the form and they’ll add you to their health management system when it is your turn. From what I saw, you’ll get the e-mail saying you’re in the management system and awhile later (the end of the day? the next day?), you’ll get the e-mail saying you can schedule your appointment. You can schedule from the system as soon as you get the e-mail saying you’ve been added. You don’t need to wait for the second e-mail.

Good luck y’all. Keep wearing a mask. Stay safe.

Update: Starting on March 29th, all adults are eligible.