So she “hit the jackpot” – she got an appointment to get the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine at her local Walgreens two days later, on February 10.
Foster, 65, immediately returned to the Walgreens website to schedule an appointment for her husband, but all remaining appointments were answered.
“It was like getting tickets to a show,” said Foster. “They disappear in minutes.”
Many pharmacies have told CNN that they can receive and administer far more doses than they have.
But he added: “In terms of the capacity of pharmacies, we haven’t optimized that yet.”
That’s because the first phase of the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program was launched with 1 million doses of vaccine allocated to 6,500 pharmacies, including some CVS, Walgreens, Walmart and Rite Aid stores.
The program, which began the week of February 8, allocates a limited supply of the Covid-19 vaccine to 21 national pharmaceutical partners and independent pharmacy chains. As the program grows, Rothholz said, pharmacies will play a role in administering doses in conjunction with public health departments, clinics, mobile units and other vaccination sites.
“All of these together will be able to successfully vaccinate individuals, according to the national plan. So it is not an approach that will replace all others. It is all of them working together to increase access to places and professionals where the public is comfortable. to be vaccinated, “said Rothholz. “That is the goal.”
A call for more vaccines
“As we extend to broader populations, the demand for vaccines continues to outpace stock,” said Teno. “We share the nation’s enthusiasm for vaccinating people as quickly as possible, but patience is needed as the vaccine stock continues to grow in the coming weeks and months and we can vaccinate more communities.”
Albertsons Companies Inc., a food company in the United States based in Boise, Idaho, is using less than 10% of its capacity, according to Albertsons spokesman Andrew Whelan. “We have the capacity to administer 150,000 doses every day and we can receive about 90% more supplies in our network,” Whelan told CNN.
Hy-Vee, a supermarket chain in the Midwest, told CNN that it would be beneficial to have more doses of vaccine to administer to the public.
“Limited supply of the vaccine has been our biggest challenge,” said company spokeswoman Christina Gayman. “We would love to vaccinate every person who requests it, but the offer is still limited.”
Meanwhile, Meijer Inc. has administered 66,000 doses since mid-January, with an additional 30,000 anticipated this week, company representative Frank J. Guglielmi told CNN. Most doses were administered in Michigan, where Meijer is a state and federal partner for the vaccine.
Guglielmi said: “As for support, we just need more vaccines”.
‘This is not our first rodeo’
On Friday morning, Kroger administered more than 400,000 vaccines in 25 states in eligible populations, as described by state public health officials.
Through the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program, Kroger received 70,000 doses in anticipation of an additional 30,000 doses next week.
“We will be counting on the strength of our 22,000 Kroger health associates across the country to lean in and really flex their muscles and muscle memory to get vaccines,” Kroger’s medical director, Dr. Marc Watkins, told CNN. “This is not our first rodeo giving vaccines, and we understand the importance of really facing the challenge of this pandemic head on now and vaccine distribution.”
For Watkins and many other pharmacy leaders, the biggest challenge remains to ensure vaccine supplies and equitable access between communities.
“We are working with state and local authorities, in addition to providing the administration to ensure vaccine doses as quickly as possible and then maintaining an equitable distribution of the vaccine once we are aligned with the phases and then ensuring that we receive gun shots as quickly as possible, “said Watkins.
So far, most pharmacies in the federal program are reporting that vaccines delivered in the first week of launch arrived on time and were put on the guns.
“We received 10,200 doses last week, and Moderna arrived in 100 dose packs – so 102 of our pharmacies received 100 doses each,” said Jenni Zilka, senior vice president of programs and field services at Good Neighbor Pharmacy. The company is a chain of independent locally owned pharmacies.
“In general, they are excited to participate,” Zilka told CNN on Tuesday. “I have examples of someone sending me a photo of them receiving the vaccine at 3:00 pm and at 3:30 pm, they were administering the vaccine and sending me photos of them administering it – so just a lot of emotion.”
The harsh winter causes concern
However, there is a potential setback: the growing concern that the initial momentum may be slowed due to the extreme winter that is sweeping parts of the United States.
Rothholz of the American Pharmacists Association told CNN on Thursday that he has not yet heard of any significant delay in delivering doses of the vaccine to pharmacies. But “the key to the program’s success is knowing what you will receive and in the time you wait,” said Rothholz of the deliveries.
“Pharmacies are having to use their scheduling-based systems, whether they are themselves or those that their local jurisdictions have for patients to be vaccinated,” he said. “You don’t want to disappoint a patient for not having the vaccine or having to cancel appointments – so that is now part of, if you want to call it a ‘challenge’, the system.”
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told CNN on Wednesday that severe weather in the United States should lead to widespread delays in shipments and deliveries of the Covid-19 vaccine in the coming days.
“Transport partners are working to deliver the vaccine whenever possible, depending on local conditions, but adverse weather is expected to continue to impact shipments from FedEx facilities in Memphis, Tennessee, as well as UPS facilities in Louisville, Ken. , which serve as centers for sending vaccines to various states, “CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said in a statement.
“CDC and federal partners are working closely with jurisdictions, as well as manufacturing and transportation partners, to assess weather conditions and help mitigate possible delays in delivery and cancellations.”
Additional doses of vaccine on the way
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the government “will double the supply for our pharmacy program”.
This week, 2 million doses will be sent to pharmacies across the country, she said.
With the increased availability of the vaccine, the program is expected to include more than 40,000 pharmacies across the country.
Foster, Ohio, was unable to find an appointment for her husband at a local pharmacy the same day she got one for herself. She also didn’t find one the next day.
“Whenever I had a minute, I tried all these different sites because they said, ‘We release appointments as soon as we can,’ and their sites – Kroger, CVS – were overwhelmed and they were unable to respond,” said Foster.
It wasn’t at a pharmacy – but at a local county health department.