Vaccinations, testing back on track

Omar E. Zapata | THE RIDER

As of early last Tuesday, UTRGV administered 32,000 doses of vaccines and posted a record two-week low of COVID-19 cases reported on campus. 

Dr. Michael Dobbs, vice dean of Clinical Affairs and chief medical officer for UT Health RGV, told The Rider that although 32,000 doses were administered, it does not mean 32,000 people are fully vaccinated. He said 12,837 people have been fully vaccinated with the second dosage and 19,163 people have received only the first dose. 

Dobbs said last month’s winter storm impacted vaccine administration early in the week, with the School of Medicine facilities in Edinburg having no power or running water. Dosing restarted Feb. 18 at a School of Medicine medical resource building in McAllen and continued through that weekend. 

“That worked really well.” he said. “I mean, you know, we were all up here, working in the dark moving supplies, moving our protected vaccine, because we protected it with proper storage with emergency power and backup generator.”

Dobbs said 3,000 vaccines were administered during that time. 

Doug Arney, vice president for Administrative Support Services, told The Rider that Feb. 12 through 25, only two undergraduate students who tested positive for COVID-19 were on campus. One student tested positive between Feb. 12 and 18, and another between Feb. 19 and 25. 

No students were being quarantined on UTRGV campuses as of March 1, Arney said.

Asked what the low cases reported were a sign of, he said it was too early to tell. 

“The more vaccines that we put out there, and we’re doing a lot of vaccines … they don’t become potential customers, right,” he said. “ So, the more we can put the shots in the arms … we’ll go down [in positive COVID-19 cases].” 

Due to the winter storm, testing sites for UTRGV were shut down Feb. 15-19. 

“That was a tough week since testing was shut down. … So, we really couldn’t do much testing,” Arney said.  Yeah, we had people calling, talking to [people with testing appointments], but we couldn’t get them in to get tested. So there was a backlog to get tested, but we got caught up. So, we’re good now.”