Dallas Reports New Variant, As 1 Out of 3 Texans Is Vaccinated

DALLAS, TX —According to the latest state statistics, one in every three Texans is now vaccinated against infection from the coronavirus.

But even as the numbers continue to improve and deaths and hospitalizations decline, vaccinations continue to slow and yet another new variant has appeared in North Texas.

Two cases of the mutation found in India have now been verified in Dallas, and what's more concerning than that is that both cases are in a population once considered most naturally immune to COVID-19: kids under 12. At the moment, there is no approved vaccine for pre-teens. How the two children became infected is a puzzle too, because neither one has been traveling.

The new variant, B.1.617.2, is the dominant infection source in India now, and was first detected there last December. Like mutations seen from the UK and elsewhere, it's more contagious than the original coronavirus. The Indian strain also contains genetic material that assists in eluding human antibodies. So far, however, the approved vaccines have proven to be effective on all of the variants.

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That's encouraging to both scientists and the health community, along with the latest numbers from across the state.

According to data gathered from the Texas Department of State Health Services, which gets its information from county and city departments of health as well as from from vaccine providers, 12.1 million residents have now received at least one dose of a vaccine, and the number of fully vaccinated Texans has risen to 9.6 million , or 33.2% of the entire population, as of May 19.

To date, Texas has administered 21 million doses of the FDA-approved vaccines since beginning a statewide program of inoculation on Dec. 14 of last year.

As its commonly known, only one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is required to reach maximum effectiveness, while two doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine are required to bring a patient to the fullest extent of immunity that each formula provides.

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