Louisiana has nearly doubled the number of pharmacies and other providers that administer vaccines to elderly patients across the state, while officials rush to keep up with the growing demand from patients over 70.
After delivering shipments of 100 doses of vaccine to 107 pharmacies last week, the Louisiana Department of Health said on Monday that it would send more doses to those pharmacies and 102 more this week. In all, 209 providers in all 64 parishes will receive the doses, the agency said, most of them pharmacies. They include 87 pharmacy chains, 93 independent pharmacies, 20 federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and 9 health centers.
Pharmacies received just 10,500 doses in the past week. This week, doses will be available from several sources. Some will be shipped directly from Moderna, some come from a surplus from the Rio Grande do Sul distributor and some clinics are making their extra doses available to the public. It was unclear on Monday morning how many doses would be available at the sites.
See a list of suppliers offering vaccines for the elderly and healthcare professionals. Several hospitals that have also started offering vaccines to people in the Phase 1B priority group are not included in this list.
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The Health Department instructed patients not to arrive at the locations without an appointment, waiting to be vaccinated, advising them to call or make an appointment on the website.
The agency also said in a new statement that “participating providers should make the vaccine available to anyone who is eligible. Failure to do so will inform future distribution decisions.”
Thousands of additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines will be distributed to pharmacies across the state next week, with Governor John Bel Edwards promising…
After seeing the delay in vaccinations in hospitals in the first weeks of the state’s effort, Governor John Bel Edwards announced on New Year’s Eve that he was expanding immunizations to the next phase, in addition to nursing homes and hospital staff. This gave people over 70 and a list of other health professionals the opportunity to be vaccinated.
The current Phase 1B priority group for the vaccine offers immunizations for people aged 70 and over, as well as staff and patients from end-stage kidney disease facilities, outpatient and outpatient health professionals, patients from home agencies and workers and schools of allied health students, residents and staff.
With vaccinations taking three weeks compared to state efforts, the Louisiana health agency this week instructed hospitals to start vaccinating the …
Although many hospital workers hesitated to receive the vaccine immediately, the demand for elderly patients immediately overwhelmed pharmacies, which put thousands of names on waiting lists last week.
At the same time, hospitals have begun to shift their focus – and its thousands of unused doses – to elderly patients. Ochsner Health System said on Friday it had scheduled 82,922 appointments to vaccinate COVID-19 over the next five weeks, including elderly patients and healthcare professionals. These include your second doses. Ochsner last week had used 30,324 of his 61,575 doses, but said he was increasing immunizations.
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 …
Aly Neel, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Health, said that just because the 107 pharmacies that received doses last week are being replenished this week, that does not guarantee that they will continue to receive doses in the future.
“The biggest limiting factor is the amount of vaccine available to us,” she said.
Come back to find out more.