COVID-19 News

11 San Antonio hospitals among first in nation to receive COVID-19 vaccines

St. Lukes Baptist Hospital will receive 975 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Photo courtesy of Baptist Health System

The first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are just days away from arriving in San Antonio. Earlier this week, the Texas Department of State Health Services confirmed 11 hospitals and clinics in Bexar County will receive the vaccine during its first week of availability.

Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine is expected to arrive in Texas on December 14, while Moderna's vaccine is projected to be available just days later. During its first week of rollout, the San Antonio area is expected to receive more than 28,000 doses, most of which will be administered to healthcare and frontline workers.

The following hospitals will be among the first places in the nation to receive the vaccine:

San Antonio State Hospital
North Central Baptist Hospital
St. Lukes Baptist Hospital
Christus Santa Rosa Medical Center
Christus Santa Rosa Hospital - Westover Hills
University Health System
Methodist Hospital & Methodist Children's Hospital
Methodist Metropolitan Hospital
Northeast Baptist Hospital
Wellness 360
Baptist Medical Center

Of those 11 healthcare providers, Wellness 360 and University Health System will both receive the most doses, with 5,850 each.

In November, the San Antonio Department of Health issued preliminary guidelines for who will receive the vaccine first: critical populations, including healthcare workers; other essential workers; and people more likely to develop severe disease, like older adults and those with underlying health conditions.

In 2021, as the vaccine becomes more widely available, it will be then be made available to a broader part of the population via doctor’s offices, pharmacies, and even H-E-B.

Initial studies put the vaccine's effective rate at 90-95 percent when patients received both injections of the two-dose shot, so making sure to get that second injection is critical.

To estimate where your "place in the line" might be, the New York Times has created an interactive tool based on your age, location, occupation, and health conditions.

health

Hold Your Horses

San Antonio City Council considers plan to phase out horse-drawn carriages

Getty Images

A scant majority of San Antonians like the idea of ending the practice.

In a special session on Thursday, October 31, the San Antonio City Council will deliberate on possibly phasing out horse-drawn carriages. A proposal called "A Just Transition from Horse Drawn Carriages" has led to a one-to-three-year plan for replacing the horses with electric carriages.

An early project proposal in November of 2022 — written by District 2 Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez and District 3 Councilmember Phyllis Viagran — laid out concerns for the horses' wellbeing, quoting the Animal Welfare Institute. Concerns included exposure to traffic and pollution, long periods standing and walking on hard surfaces, and extreme weather, among other things. In addition to the effect on horses, the request also mentioned environmental effects from slowed traffic.

It proposed completely stopping any new use of horse drawn carriages and letting any existing permits expire. The request also mentioned pedicabs as an alternative alongside the electric carriages, but the pedicabs seem to have fallen away from the public discourse.

Following up on the proposal, a city survey that concluded in August of 2024 found that of 50,476 respondents, a scant majority (51.98 percent) said they liked the idea to "Transition horse-drawn carriages to electric carriages and pedicabs and ban horse drawn carriages completely." Other options like changing hours and location of horse-drawn carriage use were unpopular, and 29.01 percent said they wanted to continue with the current system of use.

A majority of respondents (53.83 percent) had never ridden in a horse drawn carriage at all, and an strong majority of those survey takers cited the treatment of the horse as the reason they hadn't tried it. Those who had ridden on the carriages mostly liked it for the "historical and cultural experience," with examples including feeling nostalgic and learning about San Antonio's history.

The survey did not disclose how many of the people who rode on the carriages were tourists, but tourists made up 21.66 percent of respondents.

In addition to the survey, council members also unanimously voted on August 19, 2024, to have a plan drafted by city staff that would phase out the horse-drawn carriages in one to three years.

The only item on the special session agenda (aside from approval of minutes) is a briefing and possible action on the proposal, meaning that a decision is not guaranteed.

More information about city council meetings is available at sa.gov.

animals civic issues