Louisiana has nearly doubled the number of pharmacies and other providers administering vaccines to elderly patients across the country, as officials catch up with the offensive demand of patients older than 70.
After delivering 100 vaccine doses to 107 pharmacies last week, the Louisiana Department of Health said Monday it will send more doses to the pharmacies and another 102 this week. A total of 209 providers in all 64 congregations will receive doses, the agency said. Most of them are pharmacies. These include 87 chain pharmacies, 93 independent pharmacies, 20 federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and 9 health care centers.
Pharmacies received only 10,500 doses in the past week. Doses from different sources will be available this week. Some will be shipped directly from Moderna, others come from a surplus at the state’s distributor, and some clinics make their extra doses available to the public. It was not immediately clear on Monday morning how many doses would be available.
See a list of providers offering vaccines to the elderly and healthcare professionals. Several hospitals that also started offering vaccines to people in the Phase 1B priority group were not included in this list.
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The health department has instructed patients not to arrive at places without an appointment expecting to be vaccinated, and advises them to call the website or make an appointment instead.
The agency also said in a new version that “participating providers should make the vaccine available to anyone who qualifies. If they do not, future distribution decisions will be informed.”
Thousands more doses of COVID-19 vaccine will be distributed to pharmacies across the country next week, with government John Bel Edwards promising that …
After the vaccinations in hospitals slowed down in the first weeks of the state’s efforts, Governor John Bel Edwards announced on New Year’s Eve that he would extend the vaccinations to the next stage, beyond nursing homes and hospital workers. This gave people over 70 and a list of other health professionals the opportunity to be vaccinated.
The current Phase 1B vaccine priority group provides vaccinations to people aged 70 and over, as well as end-stage staff and patients for kidney disease, outpatients and outpatients, home agencies and workers and schools of related health students, residents and staff.
While the vaccinations dragged on for three weeks in the state’s efforts, Louisiana’s health agency instructed hospitals this week to …
While many hospital workers are reluctant to get the vaccine immediately, the demand for elderly patients has been immediately overwhelmed by pharmacies, which put thousands of names on waiting lists last week.
At the same time, hospitals have begun to shift their focus – and their thousands of unused doses – to elderly patients. Ochsner Health System said Friday it plans 82,922 COVID-19 vaccine appointments over the next five weeks, including elderly patients and health professionals. This includes their second doses. Ochsner used 30,324 of his 61,575 doses last week, but said it increased vaccinations.
Now that Louisiana is receiving COVID-19 vaccines every week, the Department of Health is focusing on an important way to …
Aly Neel, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Health, said just because the 107 pharmacies that received doses in the past week are being re-supplied, it cannot guarantee that they will continue to get doses going forward.
“The biggest limiting factor is the amount of vaccine available to us,” she said.
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