Starting on Thursday, March 11, Pecos County Memorial Hospital will start giving out the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine after receiving their first shipment of shots on Tuesday, March 9.

PCMH received 100 vaccines on Tuesday and the hospital plans to administer those shots at their clinic on the hospital’s campus by way of an appointment.

Individuals 18-years-old and older can receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at PCMH and those people do not need to be from the area. Individuals who want the shot are asked to call the hospital’s clinic number at 432-336-2291 to set up an appointment.

PCMH will have their clinic open Monday through Friday but not on the weekend. The hospital will schedule people in groups of five to get shots to ensure no vaccines are wasted.

PCMH in Fort Stockton initially hesitated on getting the vaccine due to the initial information provided on the vaccine’s effectiveness. The hospital’s staff held a meeting on March 9 and after a thorough review of current information on the vaccine, the hospital decided to go forward with getting the shot.

“We had a medical staff meeting yesterday and our physicians are more comfortable with Johnson & Johnson as more information has come out. At first, they were a little hesitant. But as more and more information has come out they’re more confident in that vaccine,” PCMH CEO Betsy Briscoe said on Wednesday, March 10.

Briscoe added that the hospital is unsure when they’ll receive more Johnson & Johnson vaccines after they give out their initial 100 doses, but the hospital CEO believes their facility will receive them on a consistent basis.

The 100 J&J vaccines, along with additional Pfizer vaccines, will be the only first-dose shots given out this week or next as PCMH is currently catching up on their second dose vaccines.

Pfizer vaccines are for ages 16 and older

PCMH will hold a vaccine clinic at the Pecos County Civic Center for second-dose shots only on March 17 and March 20.

Individuals who received their first dose shot at the civic center on Feb. 24 will receive their second shots on Wednesday, March 17 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Those who received their first shot on Feb. 20 will receive their second vaccine on Saturday, March 20 at the civic center from 9 a.m. to noon.

PCMH will continue to administer shots at the civic center in Fort Stockton until the end of the month before strictly using the clinic on the hospital’s campus to give out shots.

Active COVID-19 cases nearly at 0 in Pecos County

The number of active COVID-19 cases has maintained below 20 people since Feb. 16 in Pecos County and on Tuesday, March 9, it was reported that there were only six active cases in the county.

The total is the lowest number of active cases since Sept. 24 – a span of 166 days.

COVID-19 related hospitalizations have also plummeted as there have no residents of Pecos County hospitalized since March 3.

The drop in active cases coincides with the rise in number of COVID-19 vaccines that have been given in the county and Fort Stockton.

There have been 4,078 residents of Pecos County that have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. That’s 33 percent of the amount of people that live in the county that are old enough (16 and older) to get a vaccine.