No vaccine drives are expected in Nueces County Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday as the weather is expected to worsen.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Freezing weather is having effects on many in the community, including the Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health District’s efforts to distribute COVID-19 vaccines.
Health Director Annette Rodriguez said that during Thursday’s vaccine distribution workers had trouble with the tablets they were using because of the cold weather and rain. It resulted in an hour delay in people receiving their shots.
Rodriguez said this may continue to be a challenge into the next week as weather is expected to worsen.
“It might affect the arrival of the vaccines,” Rodriguez said. “That’s what we’re hearing right now. Bitter temperatures are going to be everywhere, and so again, we don’t know when they’re coming. We know we’re getting 5,000 next week, but we don’t know when, so we’re keeping an eye on that.”
Rodriguez said the weather forecast for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday is expected to be too cold and wet to have anyone work outside, even if vaccines do arrive.
Typically the department receives vaccine shipments every Monday, but with the current forecast for freezing temperatures, Onufrak said they’re left with some uncertainty.
“We did try to bring the majority of our workers inside yesterday, but you know our adverse reactions, that’s outside and we do have several you know over 20 workers that had to be outside and it was very cold,” said Kim Onufrak, the clinical director for the Nueces County-Corpus Christi Health District.
“Delivery is coming from Tennessee, and so if the weather is bad all across the United States, it might not get here,” said Onufrak.
“Bitter temperatures are going to be everywhere, and so again we don’t know when they’re coming,” said Annette Rodriguez, the health director for the county-city public health district.
Even if the vaccine arrives on time, Rodriguez said the weather will be too cold to host a drive-thru clinic early in the week.
“We do have to keep account into, you know, trying to keep our workers safe. We don’t want them to freeze to death. So, even if our, our supplies do arrive on Monday or Tuesday if it’s too cold, we just don’t have the capabilities to keep everybody inside,” said Onufrak.
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