Local pharmacy administering Covid vaccine
School employees, those over 70 eligible for shots when available
Forrest City Family Pharmacy this week received an additional 100 doses of the coronavirus vaccine to administer to those wanting the shot.
Pharmacist Justin Breezeel said shots are being administered at the pharmacy in Forrest City, as the vaccine becomes available, and at sites where numerous people are wanting to be vaccinated at the same time.
On Monday, school employees and those over the age of 70 became eligible to receive the vaccine.
The Arkansas Department of Health on Monday added another death to the St. Francis County Covid death total. So far, the county has had 28 people die from complications of the virus. Also on Monday, the ADH added two more deaths in Cross County, bringing that county’s total deaths to 41 since the beginning of the pandemic.
Breezeel said the pharmacy received about 100 doses of the vaccine last week and another 100 this week.
“We gave all 100 doses last week and we are working on giving the doses we have this week,” said Breezeel. “I fill out a survey each weekend and ask for however many shots I think we can handle that week based on our schedules.”
The Palestine Family Pharmacy is the only other pharmacy in the county receiving the vaccine. “I got 100 and I think they got 100 as well,” said Breezeel.
“Since we started with Phase 1B, we’ve just kind of been operating independently and making our own schedules,” he said, adding that shots will be administered by appointment only and that the pharmacy is following the list of people who signed up to receive the vaccine.
“This shot will have to be appointment only because each vial has 10 shots. Once you opened that vial, you only have a few hours to give all of the shots or the vial goes bad or expires,” said Breezeel. “As far as I know, the Moderna shot will always been appointment only. People can come to the pharmacy or call and have their name added to the list. Once we get to their name, we’ll call them so they can come up here and we’ll stick them.”
Breezeel said about 100 shots is all the pharmacy can handle in a week’s time.
“If it’s just me giving the shots, about 100 a week is plenty and about the max I can handle while I’m also trying to run the pharmacy,” said Breezeel, adding that he has hired an additional person to help administer the vaccine.
Breezeel said there are some problems with the distribution of the vaccine but is hoping those issues are soon remedied.
“One problem is you don’t get any heads up other than an email that we get on Sunday afternoon telling us we have a shipment on the way. Every county has different allotments. We don’t know until the next week, or right before it starts, how many we have. The problem is no one seems to know the full picture,” he said. “It’s been a challenge, but we’re doing what we can.”
(Continued from Page 1) As of Monday, the state had received 324,400 doses of the vaccine with 140,559 of those administered, according to the ADH.
On Monday there were also 1,263 Arkansans hospitalized across the state with the virus. The ADH reported 1,109 new cases on Monday and 32 more deaths.