AUSTIN, Texas — According to a KVUE analysis of Texas Department of State Health Services data, vaccination rates in Central Texas lag behind those in other large counties in the state. The data reveals that of Texas' 15 most populous counties, Travis and Williamson counties rank last in the percentage of people who have been fully vaccinated.
Travis County is Texas’ fifth-most populous county but ranks 14th among the 15 largest counties in terms of the percentage of people who are fully vaccinated so far. Williamson County is Texas’ 12th most populous but ranks 15th in the number of people who are fully vaccinated.
Highly-populated counties with the highest percentage of people who are fully vaccinated include Fort Bend County near Houston (17.2%), Cameron County in the Rio Grande Valley (17.1%) and El Paso County (16.2%)
Of Travis County's 16 and older population, 10.6% have been fully immunized. The percentage of that group in Williamson County is 9.6%.
Of the 11 counties in KVUE’s viewing area, Mason County ranks at the top of the most number of vaccinations list with 17.9% of its population fully vaccinated, while only 4.8% of the population in Gillespie County is fully protected against the virus. Hays, Bastrop, Caldwell, Burnet and Lee counties averaged around 9% of their population who are fully vaccinated.
Currently, Texas ranks 47th in the number of vaccine shots given so far.
Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz sent a letter to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) saying the agency needs to stop using data from 2018 to allocate vaccines to Texas. They say the state added at least 374,000 new residents between 2019 and 2020.
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