TEXAS, USA — Vaccination rates are on the climb and Jasmine Montoya, nursing student interning with the city of Nacogdoches, said this trend did not exist in May.
“It was completely dead. We would have little clinics here and there, like the Nacogdoches Public Library. We would get like maybe 40, 30 people tops," she said.
The Delta variant turned things around completely.
“We have as much as 100 people showing up now,” she finished.
Longview resident Wanda Taylor just got her first shot on Monday.
"I went into Kroger, and I walked right in and they gave it to me. There was no wait time or anything," she said.
When asked why she decided to get the shot now, more than 8 months after it became available, she said there were multiple reasons.
"Recently the surge of the new Delta variant is out in the hospital. I saw the news conference on Monday- the Longview news conference with the doctors at the hospitals- and how bad it is. They're getting pretty full. If something happens, there's nowhere to go.”
At that exact conference, Longview Regional let us know they had no beds available. That same day, Taylor got her shot.
To those who are still on the same fence Taylor says she's been on for months, she said, “I don't want anybody I know, to be turned away and to die at home without a ventilator. Pray about it and go get vaccinated.”
If you choose to roll up your sleeves for your first dose, JBS Food Group has your shot at free meat for a year. The event will be happening Thursday at Simon Rec Center in Nacogdoches. Click here for more info.