State reaches million shots
Gov. Asa Hutchinson commemorated the 1 millionth coronavirus vaccination in Arkansas during his weekly covid-19 update Tuesday, but he added that he would like more doses to roll into the state quicker and more residents to take their shots when they become eligible.
The governor released a statistic from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that revealed Arkansas has given 1,008,575 covid-19 shots out of 1,466,950 doses received. The total number of given shots does not mirror the total provided through state and federal programs (978,784), Hutchinson pointed out, adding the figure from the CDC includes those separately handled by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and veterans health centers.
Arkansas’ vaccination rate is still well short of 70%, a benchmark set by Health Secretary Jose Romero for the state to attain herd immunity. Only 57.2% of the doses at hospitals, state long-term care facilities, pharmacies and other health care providers through the state program have been injected, and 45.5% of doses allocated through federal retail, long-term care and Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network programs have been administered.
More than 1.5 million
“Part of it is opening up to the remainder of the population so that anybody that wants a shot can get the shot. We’re having to filter through people in part because of job classes and disease states. Those people should get vaccinated first, but there are not enough people right now to fill all the clinic slots.”
— Lelan Stice, owner of Doctor’s Orders Pharmacy locations in Pine Bluff, White Hall and Star City
doses have been received through the state program, including 68,670 on Monday. Of the latter number, 14,387 were given.
“I’m not happy with the speed of distribution, and I think we’re running into a little bit of a continued demand problem, in the sense that, as people in the community see the lower case numbers, they’re less motivated to want to get a vaccination,” Hutchinson said. “We’ve got to reverse that trend. I want to ask everyone: When it’s your turn to get it, get that shot.”
Lelan Stice, owner of Doctor’s Orders Pharmacy sites in Pine Bluff, White Hall and Star City, said his business is doing as many vaccination clinics as possible, but he added many time slots have not been filled. Only 220 people signed up for the 360 time slots available Tuesday, he said as an example.
“Part of it is opening up to the remainder of the population so that anybody that wants a shot can get the shot,” Stice said. “We’re having to filter through people in part because of job classes and disease states. Those people should get vaccinated first, but there are not enough people right now to fill all the clinic slots.”
Hutchinson last week moved the state vaccination plan into Phase 1-C, which includes members of the media; energy, finance, food service and information technology/ communications workers; and those residing in highrisk settings. Regarding age groups, only those between 16 and 64 with qualifying health conditions and those 65 and older are eligible as well to be vaccinated.
Stice said 130 University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff students who did not leave campus for spring break are signed up for covid-19 shots at a clinic Thursday.
“They’re getting the message, but not everybody is signing up,” Stice said. “You see the line [of people waiting for a shot] out there, and that could be because we have a full slate of appointments for that hour. You come here in the afternoon, and today, we haven’t had much of a line at all.”
Stice said 600 slots are open for April 2. To register for a shot through Doctor’s Orders, visit injecttoprotect.com and pick a date.
Other health-related entities in Pine Bluff are giving covid-19 shots as well, according to a database from the Arkansas Department of Health, including:
■ Jefferson Regional Medical Center, at Healthworks in the I-530 Medical Mall, 4747 Dusty Lake Circle, from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays by appointment only, jrmc.org/covid19.
■ Walmart, 5501 S. Olive St., walmart.com/COVIDvaccine.
■ Express Rx of Pine Bluff, 3006 W. 28th Ave., expressrx.net.
■ Daily Dose Drugstore, 103 Timber Lane, White Hall, dailydosedrugstore.com.