Collin County Commissioners voted during their regular meeting Monday, Jan. 11, to contract with Curative Medical Association to set up vaccination mega-sites as soon as the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) provides COVID-19 vaccine supplies in larger volumes.

The court voted 5-0 to retain Curative Medical, which has run large-scale COVID-19 testing for the county since last spring. Curative Medical is set up to publicly administer allotted doses of vaccine under the guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and vaccine manufacturers.

During the meeting, Curative representatives said they were capable of administering up to 6,000 doses per day for each mega-site. The company also said they could administer both Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

The mega-site and mobile site times and locations will be announced when more vaccine supplies are available.

The Collin County Commissioners Court and the Collin County legislative delegation later sent a joint letter to Commissioner John Hellerstedt of DSHS asking the state to provide additional doses of the vaccine as soon as possible.

The letter said Collin County is ready and able to host a mega-center for large-scale administration of the vaccine beginning immediately. It is signed by County Judge Chris Hill, Commissioner Susan Fletcher, Commissioner Cheryl Williams, Commissioner Darrell Hale, Commissioner Duncan Webb, Sen. Angela Paxton, Sen. Drew Springer, Rep. Justin Holland, Rep. Matt Shaheen, Rep. Jeff Leach, Rep. Scott Sanford and Rep. Candy Noble.

“I and our legislative delegation are working diligently with the leadership of Collin County and with the Department of State Health Services to attack COVID-19 head-on,” said Representative Jeff Leach, “including ensuring that Collin County citizens have quick and efficient access to vaccinations. Those citizens expect, demand and deserve nothing less.”

According to County Judge Chris Hill, “The Commissioners and I have been planning strategically with our legislative delegation, our cities, our school districts, and private sector partners to ensure that Collin County is ready and able to distribute both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to our community as early and as quickly as possible. We absolutely need the state to join our partnership and provide the vaccines to Collin County.”

The partnership, which includes Collin County, 25 cities and towns throughout the county, Collin College, McKinney ISD, Frisco ISD, Plano ISD, and private sector providers, are ready to administer up to 2,000 vaccines, with the ability to increase to 6,000 vaccines, per day.

DHSH announced earlier this week that 200,000 doses of the vaccine would be distributed across the state, but none are allocated for Collin County.

From Staff Reports • [email protected]