Vaccine providers make booster shot plans
As federal regulators prepare to authorize COVID-19 booster shots for all Americans 65 and older who received the Pfizer-biontech vaccine, officials at the state’s largest hospital systems say those doses could be available by appointment as soon as later this week.
“As soon as we get the final guidance from the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] later this week, we’ll begin the process for those who are eligible,” Eric Arlia, Hartford Healthcare’s senior system director of pharmacy, said Monday.
Dr. Ohm Deshpande, vice president of population health for Yale New Haven Health, said the hospital system plans to open two new vaccine sites in the coming days — one across from Bridgeport Hospital and another at the Scranton Professional Center in New Haven — to go with six existing locations.
“We’re hoping to be live with them as soon as possible but really toward the end of the week, as soon as there is definitive clarity from the CDC and the FDA,” Desphande said. “I would anticipate the Friday-to-saturday time frame.”
A representative for Trinity Health of New England, which operates Saint Francis Hospital, said the system “is currently making the necessary plans to administer boosters.”
Additionally, vaccine booster shots will be available at urgent care clinics, at some federally qualified health centers and at pharmacies, including CVS and Walgreens, which have taken on a larger roll
in vaccine distribution as the year has progressed. On Monday, CVS announced it would hire 25,000
clinical and retail workers nationwide, including about 470 in Connecticut, to respond to demand for COVID-19 testing and vaccines.
The rush to prepare for a booster shot campaign comes after a federal Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Friday recommended additional doses for Pfizer-biontech vaccine recipients who are age 65 and older or who are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, based on forthcoming criteria. Final approval from the FDA and the CDC’S Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is expected later this week.
People who received the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines will not yet be eligible for booster shots.
In Connecticut and elsewhere, vaccine providers are more than a month into the process of administering third vaccine doses to people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised. Officials say uptake among that population has been slower than expected, with only a fraction of those eligible having sought their third dose so far.
Dr. Ajay Kumar, chief clinical officer at Hartford Healthcare, said he doesn’t know whether the relative lack of interest from immunocompromised people will be translate to a broader swath of the public but that he hopes most eligible people will seek their third shot.
“We are hoping folks will come around. It’s still in the early stages right now,” Kumar said. “And I’m hoping that the booster will be widely accepted among the general public.”
In an attempt to increase booster shot uptake among the newly eligible groups, Hartford Healthcare officials say they will notify everyone who receives care from when they are eligible for a COVID-19 booster shot. For now, those doses will be available only by appointment, though that could change moving forward depending on demand.
Deshpande said he anticipates some scarcity of booster shot appointments in the short-term but said he expects that will clear quickly.
“There’s a certain population that is going to be excited to get immediately, so there may be a little bit of an issue with availability for the first few days,” Deshpande said. “But I anticipate that’s going to smooth out pretty quickly as people find shots.”