COVID-19 Vaccine Will be Available to All Texas Adults on 3/29

The Texas Department of State Health Services has announced that all adults will soon be able to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Starting Monday, March 29, everyone ages 16 and older will be eligible to get the vaccine, regardless of occupation or pre-existing health conditions. However, the Texas Department of State Health Services is asking providers to give priority for appointments or walk-ins to those ages 80 and over, according to The Texas Tribune.

The good news for those who are willing to make the trip from other states is that the vaccine is also available to non-residents, state citizenship is not required.

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The announcement that everyone ages 16 and older can now receive the vaccine means that around 22 million people will be eligible on Monday (not including non-residents). The problem is that Texas has only been allocated over 14 million doses since distribution began.

Imelda Garcia, DSHS associate commissioner for laboratory and infectious disease services and the chair of the state's Expert Vaccine Allocation Panel says the goal is to keep the momentum going as more and more Texans are vaccinated:

We are closing in on 10 million doses administered in Texas, and we want to keep up the momentum as the vaccine supply increases.

Things have moved quickly since Phase 1C began back on March 15, allowing all Texans age 50 and older to receive the vaccine. Texas received its first shipment of vaccines back in December.

As of this posting, more than 9.3 million doses of the vaccine have been administered in Texas. There are currently more than 3 million people who have been fully vaccinated.

LOOK: Answers to 30 common COVID-19 vaccine questions

While much is still unknown about the coronavirus and the future, what is known is that the currently available vaccines have gone through all three trial phases and are safe and effective. It will be necessary for as many Americans as possible to be vaccinated in order to finally return to some level of pre-pandemic normalcy, and hopefully these 30 answers provided here will help readers get vaccinated as soon they are able.

READ ON: See the States Where People Live the Longest

Stacker used data from the 2020 County Health Rankings to rank every state's average life expectancy from lowest to highest. The 2020 County Health Rankings values were calculated using mortality counts from the 2016-2018 National Center for Health Statistics. The U.S. Census 2019 American Community Survey and America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2019 data were also used to provide demographics on the senior population of each state and the state's rank on senior health care, respectively.

Read on to learn the average life expectancy in each state.