Bell County announces changes to COVID-19 vaccination plan

BELTON, Texas – Bell County health officials announced their two vaccination centers will adjust their days of operation.

This change was made due to a delay in shipment of the 3,900 Pfizer state allocated vaccines.

Bell County Judge David Blackburn is unsure of the delay reason, but emphasizes the great working relationship the county has with state officials in the Department of State Health services and Texas Department of Emergency Management.

“We certainly apologize to the public about any inconvenience that may result because of that,” Blackburn said.

Blackburn says there are a lot of moving parts. He believes getting the vaccines centers in sync with the logistics chain – including manufacturing, shipping and delivery team will help the process.

He said they are working on this moving forward, and it is important for the residents to practice patience.

“We are going to do our best to remain consistent as possible, and transparent as possible,” says Blackburn.

With a limited number of vaccines and a high demand, he said it will take some time to get the process rolling. The changes announced this week included changes in operation and shifting the scheduled appointments.

“It’s just not sustainable, given the logistics chain that we have right now. So we are going to shift from being open Tuesday through Saturday, to closed on Sunday and Monday,” Blackburn said. “Most of these changes and appointments, people are getting notifications as we speak. Most of those changes resulted in a day-or-two delay or deferment from their original appointment date.”

Blackburn says shifting things on the front end will save a lot of time on the back end.

“Which means we are going to have to adjust and make changes as we can as the weeks go by, but we definitely at Bell County can do more vaccinations if we had more vaccinations,” says Blackburn.

Those with vaccination appointments scheduled this Sunday or later will keep the same appointment time, but be moved to a date two to four days later. This shift is detailed in the table below:

Original date / new date: