Houston received over 16,000 doses of the Monkeypox vaccine, according to Mayor Sylvester Turner who announced the new shipment at a Wednesday city council meeting.
He said 30 percent of those doses will be provided to the Harris County Public Health Department, and will be administered to those who express need. Turner also said, while this shipment is good, it’s not enough to keep up with the demand.
“Even with Houston expected to receive 16,780, we still need a lot more,” Turner said. “Because the cases are exponentially increasing. So the demand is out there, the demand is high, it exceeds our supply. But we do need more and certainly encouraging the CDC and the state to send us more.”
This allocation comes after requests were made to the CDC last week for 17,000 vaccines. Monkeypox cases have reached 125 as of Monday, per an update from Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Tuesday.
Hidalgo said on Tuesday, she feared people would schedule vaccine appointments, and the supply would not be available. Late last month, the city paused their appointment system, also in fear of low supply.
Turner said the city plans to ask the CDC for more vaccine shipments for the time-being.
“Even though relatively speaking to places like New York, Chicago, San Francisco and D.C., our numbers are lower, much lower, still, we want to as much as possible, be out in front and not be chasing. So we’ll be continuously asking CDC in the state for more.”