Covid-19 vaccine demand outpaces supply in county
County judge contacting state officials in effort to obtain more doses for area
County Judge Gary Hughes is trying to make sure St. Francis County is not being slighted when it comes to receiving doses of the coronavirus vaccine.
Currently, the Arkansas Department of Health is sending only about 300 doses of the vaccine to pharmacies in St. Francis County weekly, as lists of those wanting to be vaccinated continue to grow.
“The Department of Health is not releasing any information in regard to how they’re making decisions on how many shots each pharmacy is getting,” said Hughes. “I can’t get any information on that.”
According to reports, local pharmacies – Forrest City Family Pharmacy, Palestine Family Pharmacy and the Forrest City Walgreen’s – each receive about 100 doses of the vaccine on Monday to administer during the week, or as long as it lasts. In many places, those waiting lists contain over 1,000 names of residents waiting for the shots, and those locations are vaccinating only those who asked to be placed on their waiting lists.
In a Times- Herald report on the vaccines last week, one pharmacist said his business is only able to administer about 100 doses each week while also keeping up with the normal tasks of operating the pharmacy. He also said an additional pharmacist was working specifically to administer the vaccine in an effort to keep up with the demand, which continues to outpace the supply.
Hughes said he has been voicing concerns over the supply to local state senators and representatives, while also working with local health officials who have agreed to help the county administer as many vaccines as the ADH is willing to provide. He has a plan in place to host a mass vaccination clinic if the state would allot the county more doses of the vaccine.
“If we could start getting 500 a week, who is going to give those shots if the pharmacies are limited in how many they can give each week?” asked Hughes. “I have talked with the hospital administration and the health department, as well as some health care workers, who said they would be more than happy to volunteers to help administer the vaccine. We have various facilities that we could use and we would be more than happy to give the shots. We have people willing to step up and fill the void.
“The hospital has said they will take all the doses we can get them and be glad to give them to the general public. The health department will be glad to give them, and we have nurse volunteers who said they will help. The county could host a drive- through vaccine clinic at the fairgrounds, and we could come up with the nurses to give the shots,” said Hughes.
Hughes also said he believes St. Francis County needs more than 300 doses each week.
“We don’t feel like we’re getting our fair share of doses for this county,” said Hughes. “We just need to be able to get the vaccine, and that’s a piece of the puzzle that we have no control over.
The vaccine has to be given in two doses to be most effective.
Pharmacy representatives today said they are unsure at this point if when the second shot is due for many people whether or not the pharmacies will receive
twice the weekly amount to cover the first round of recipients or onlyenoughto give the first round ofpeopletheirsecondshots.
“I’ve talked to Sen. ( Ronald) Caldwell and explained to him my concern is that we have the capacity to give more than 100 shots aweek,” saidHughes.
Hughes shared a story of a person he recently talked with who is on a waiting list to receive the vaccine. “I spoke with someone who is over 70 who asked the pharmacy when he could expect a call to come get the vaccine and was told it could be at least four weeks,” said Hughes.
The county’s current populationisover 28,000.