For Albert Garza, this week marked the end of a long wait.
The 75-year-old received his first dose of the Moderna vaccine at his southeast Dallas home from two Dallas Fire-Rescue medics.
Garza said he wanted to get the COVID-19 vaccine a long time ago, but he doesn’t drive and he didn’t feel like making the trek to catch a DART bus.
With no family in the area besides his 74-year-old homebound brother, his only option was to hope for an accessible alternative.
His hopes were answered with the city of Dallas’ first in-home vaccination program. Garza was the first stop for one of the six teams formed by Dallas Fire-Rescue and the Visiting Nurse Association of Texas, a nonprofit that provides services to aging adults.
The program is the next step in the goal to vaccinate vulnerable residents and comes three months after Dallas County’s vaccine hub opened at Fair Park in South Dallas. Initial efforts to inoculate Black and Latino people in the county had fallen short, complicated by transportation issues and internet access because of an online registration system.
Now, as doses have become more widely available and an increasing number of people are getting inoculated, the city and county have streamlined the vaccination process.
Both recently shifted to same- or next-day appointment signups for first doses, and they’re vaccinating anyone 55 or over without an appointment. And other efforts to reach people in their communities, such as pop-up sites or walk-in clinics, are in the works.
As of Monday, 1 out of every 4 Dallas County residents over 16 had been fully vaccinated, according to state data. More than half of all county residents over 65 had been fully immunized, and over 75% had received at least one shot.
Paramedics and nurse association members set out to inoculate 60 people in the nonprofit’s Meals on Wheels program Monday. Katherine Krause, the association’s president, said they intend to vaccinate 300 homebound senior citizens by the end of this week and 200 more next week.
Krause said the nonprofit has been preparing for a mobile vaccine program since last fall.
“We actually started delivering flu shots to our homebound Meals on Wheels clients in anticipation of delivering the COVID-19 shot,” Krause said.
“We know that our seniors ... don’t have access to transportation or are challenged with technology and are alone.”
Garza and other Meals on Wheels recipients’ waits were prolonged even more when the program launch was delayed.
Last week, Dallas County stopped distributing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine — which the program had planned to use — after federal officials called for a pause to investigate reports of blood clots in six women who received the vaccine.
Bret Stidham, Dallas Fire-Rescue assistant chief of staff, said the teams were fortunate to find out about the halt before they started distributing those doses last week. He added that they will keep using Moderna until instructed otherwise.
“This team has used all types of vaccines,” Stidham said of Dallas Fire-Rescue paramedics, who began administering vaccines at the city’s megasites in January.
“Logistically, [Moderna] is more of a challenge because of the temperature it has to be held at.”
Johnson & Johnson vaccines don’t need to arrive frozen like the Moderna doses, which must be kept between minus-58 and 5 degrees before thawing. Both companies’ vaccines can be refrigerated between 36 and 46 degrees until their expiration dates.
VNA clients will receive their second Moderna shot 28 days after their first.
Garza said he doesn’t have any plans after his final dose besides working around the house and tending to his garden.
“I hope I’m still alive,” he said. “That’s all I want.”
Sitting in a cushioned patio chair on his front porch, Garza gave a fist bump to Corey Nix, the Dallas Fire-Rescue officer who administered his first shot.
“How does that feel?” Nix asked him.
“Right now I feel the same — good,” Garza said. “You all came here, so I appreciate it.”
“I’m glad that we were able to do that for you,” Nix said.
