After a slow start to the COVID-19 vaccination, Louisiana revealed a list of more than 100 pharmacies on Monday that will begin administering small amounts of the vaccine to the elderly and a few other priority groups this week.
The state has only 10,500 doses of Moderna vaccine to deliver to pharmacies, and about 640,000 people can receive them immediately. This means that demand is likely to exceed supply.
The pharmacies now included in the state’s mass vaccination effort span 51 parishes and include five in Baton Rouge, six in New Orleans and one in Lafayette. Forty-five chains like Walgreens and Albertsons, along with 62 independent pharmacies and pharmacies linked to major health systems, like Ochsner, are included.
Now that Louisiana is getting COVID-19 vaccines every week, the state Department of Health is shifting its focus to a crucial part of achieving …
State officials say people will not be able to go to pharmacies without an appointment to be vaccinated. LDH spokesman Aly Neel said pharmacies need to be able to track each dose administered and do not want long lines to form during a pandemic. Patients should go to pharmacies to make an appointment.
See the map of pharmacies here.
Pharmacies will receive only about 100 doses in the first batch, and the Department of Health has already reported that telephone lines in pharmacies are blocked due to interest in the vaccine.
“With this very limited first batch of vaccine, we won’t be able to vaccinate everyone this week,” said Neel.
Neel added that not all pharmacies will receive the vaccine immediately, but it will be shipped this week.
Governor John Bel Edwards announced last week that the state’s vaccination program – hitherto limited to hospitals and long-term care facilities such as nursing homes – would expand to about 100 pharmacies. He also announced the next priority groups beyond Phase 1A.
“The number of doses of vaccine that we will receive next week to start this is very limited,” Edwards said during a news conference on New Year’s Eve. “But it is enough to start testing the systems, solving the problems and so on. And over time, we expect the number of doses to increase dramatically. When that happens, we want to have everything ready to be as efficient as we can be for administer and distribute these vaccines. ”
He added that people in Phase 1A will also be eligible to receive vaccines through pharmacies.
Appointments are mandatory.
The first part of Phase 1B, called Tier 1, is eligible to make appointments for vaccinations in pharmacies starting this week. This includes people aged 70 and over, employees and patients from end-stage renal institutions, outpatient and outpatient health professionals, patients and employees from home agencies and schools of health students, residents and employees.
The next level of Phase 1B, which is not yet eligible, includes a number of other workers, including essential government response, “judicial staff”, correctional officers, K-12 school and daycare staff, post office staff, public transport staff and grocery workers, among others. Approximately 318,750 people will be eligible in this group. Federal judges, state district judges and Louisiana Supreme Court justices wrote letters to the governor’s administration asking for priority.
The CDC advisory panel issued relatively broad federal recommendations in December to priority groups, saying states should expand the vaccine in Phase 1B to people aged 75 and over and essential workers such as first responders, correctional officers, food and agriculture officials, transit post workers, grocery workers, manufacturing workers and teachers. Phase 1C should include people aged 65 and over, those with underlying medical conditions and more essential workers.
The US has increased COVID-19 vaccinations in the past few days after a slower-than-expected start, bringing the number of Am… to about 4 million.
Edwards said last week that he would prioritize people with underlying health problems before federal recommendations, but did not give details. A larger portion of Louisiana’s population has underlying health problems than other states, making the outlook more difficult due to the scarce initial supply of vaccines.
In the first two weeks of vaccination, Louisiana administered only 45,289 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, far from all doses received. The state received 79,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine alone in the first two weeks. It is sent to hospitals because they are able to store it at the extremely low temperatures required and has been used mainly to vaccinate health workers.
By the end of this week, Louisiana expects to have received more than 210,000 doses of vaccines, including 56,200 for nursing homes and other long-term care facilities through a federal program. The state discloses the number of vaccines administered on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Come back to find out more.