Coronavirus News

Dallas launches new program to do COVID-19 vaccinations at home

If you have mobility issues, they'll come to your house.

WPA Pool / Getty Images

UPDATE 4-13-2020: The City of Dallas and the Visiting Nurses Association of Texas (VNA) have paused the in-home vaccine rollout until further notice, following recommendations from the FDA and the CDC, due to clotting incidents with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The city of Dallas will launch a separate program to do COVID-19 vaccinations at people's homes.

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The city has partnered with Visiting Nurse Association of Texas (VNA), a nonprofit that does outreach to elderly people. They'll identify Dallas residents who are unable to get to a vaccination site. The vaccinations will be deployed by Dallas Fire Rescue (DFR) Emergency Medical Services (EMS) staff and VNA staff.

They're going with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is a single dose. According to a release, they'll begin with 500 doses, allocated from Dallas County Health and Human Services.

The in-home vaccinations will begin on Tuesday, April 13, with six teams of EMS staff vaccinating 12 residents per day, based on availability of vaccine doses.

VNA offers Meals on Wheels in Dallas County, and VNA Hospice Care and Palliative Care in Collin, Cooke, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Fannin, Grayson, Henderson, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Navarro, Rockwall, Tarrant, Van Zandt, and Wise Counties. So they're already in touch with Dallas residents who might lack transportation.

"The clients we serve through Meals on Wheels are the most vulnerable in our community — they are elderly and homebound, do not have access to technology for scheduling, suffer from multiple chronic conditions and reside in areas most impacted by the pandemic," says Katherine Krause, VNA President & CEO in a statement. "We knock on their doors every day connecting them to food and resources and it is vital that we bring this life-saving vaccine to them."

"We thank the VNA for their partnership to equitably vaccinate our most vulnerable residents," said Rocky Vaz, Director of the City of Dallas Office of Emergency Management says that this has been a high priority. "Working with the VNA allows us to provide vaccines to many who might not have been able to reach vaccine hubs or pharmacies any other way," Vaz says.

The city's previous vaccine initiatives include registration events and a partnership with Uber Technologies and Project Unity, a local nonprofit, to provide free rides to vaccination sites.

The city currently operates a drive-through vaccination hub at The Potter’s House in southern Dallas. The hub is operated by contract vendor American Medical Response (AMR), and is distributing 5,000 first doses of the Moderna vaccine by appointment only this week.

For more information on the City’s COVID-19 response efforts and vaccines, call 214-670-INFO (4636) or visit DallasCityHall.com/COVID19. To register for a vaccination, go to www.dallascountycovid.org or call 1-855-IMMUNE9 (855-466-8639) between 7 am-7 pm.

health

happy go lucky plano

Dallas neighbor dazzles on new list of happiest cities in America

Photo courtesy of Visit Plano

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A new happiness study has ranked Plano one of the happiest cities in America this year, and it once again landed on top as the happiest city in Texas.

Plano has moved up on the list and ranks as the 16th happiest U.S. city in 2026. Last year, it was 17th.

WalletHub determined the happiest cities in America based on 29 relevant metrics based on "positive-psychology research" across three main categories: emotional and physical wellbeing, income and employment, and community and environment. As with most WalletHub studies, it compared the 182 most populous U.S. cities.

Fremont, California claimed the top spot as the happiest city nationwide for another year. Bismark, North Dakota and Scottsdale, Arizona, respectfully, rounded out the top three.

Here's how WalletHub ranked Plano across the three key dimensions:

No. 15 – Emotional and physical wellbeing
No. 22 – Community and environment
No. 72 – Income and employment

Plano and its residents have continued improving their city year after year, whether its through opening new bakeries and restaurants, inviting fun pop-ups for locals, or having a strong job market.

Plano's happiness far outshines the rest of North Texas; according to WalletHub, Irving is the 70th happiest city in the country, the third-happiest in Texas, and the second-happiest city in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro. Garland ranked farther behind as No. 92 nationally, and more DFW cities ranked even lower: Grand Prairie (No. 106), Dallas (No. 111), Fort Worth (No. 113), and Arlington (No. 119).

The report additionally found that Dallasites spend the third-most amount of time at work in the nation. The city ranked No. 180 in the national analysis of U.S. cities with the "fewest work hours."

WalletHub also emphasized that money doesn't buy happiness — after a certain point.

"For decades, researchers have explored the science of happiness and identified several core factors, including mental well-being, physical health, strong social ties, job satisfaction, and financial stability," the report said. "Still, income has its limits — studies show that earning more than $75,000 a year does not lead to greater happiness."

Six-figure earners in Plano aren't necessarily as happy as those who don't make as much, as a separate financial study from SmartAsset revealed these big earners are only taking home about $72,653 after taxes and adjusted for the cost of living.

This is how other Texas cities ranked in the report:

No. 39 – Austin
No. 128 – Houston
No. 135 – Lubbock
No. 137 – El Paso
No. 140 – Laredo
No. 143 – Amarillo
No. 150 – Brownsville
No. 154 – San Antonio
No. 155 – Corpus Christi

wallethub plano reports