![]() ![]() In the meantime, CVS and H-E-B, as well as many other pharmacies, are inundated with questions from Texans wondering how and when they can get vaccinated.ĭebbie Garza, the chief executive of Texas Pharmacy Association, cautioned that as hard as pharmacists are working to get this vaccine out, fielding calls could delay the process. “In all our lifetime, think about it, nothing like this has ever come up,” Fratamico said.īecause CVS is focusing on long-term care facilities for the next few months, Fratamico said they will wait to figure out those plans with the state for the general public until closer to then. When that does happen - John Fratamico, a CVS district leader in Texas, said this could occur in March - customers will sign up for what Fratamico called a “round-trip ticket.” Using the pharmacy’s website or app, or a 1-800 number, eligible Texans will schedule both the first and second doses of the vaccine on a first-come-first-serve basis. Eventually, if the pharmacy has enough doses, it hopes to accept walk-ins.ĬVS, which plans to spend the next three months focusing on vaccinating 275,000 residents and staff at 2,000 long-term care facilities in Texas, is also not yet opening up vaccine appointments to the general public. Once H-E-B does get more doses, Campos said eligible customers will be able to schedule a time to get their vaccine on the website or by calling. This uncertainty makes it nearly impossible to schedule people in the next phase. “We are prepared to vaccinate more Texans, and we are just waiting to see how much allocation we're going to get on a weekly basis,” Campos said. Customers who call the H-E-B pharmacies receive pre-recorded answers saying they are not yet distributing vaccines to the general public. Right now, across its hundreds of Texas stores, it has none. Now it’s left waiting for the state to tell it both how much vaccine it will receive in its next shipment and when that shipment will arrive. Just a week after receiving its first shipment of 28,000 doses of vaccine, the company has administered or scheduled every single dose. ![]() They don’t have enough doses to vaccinate the general population, they said.ĭya Campos, H-E-B’s director of government affairs, said Thursday the grocery chain’s pharmacies have the capacity to administer around 100,000 doses of vaccine each week. Pharmacies like CVS and H-E-B say they are still focusing on vaccinating medical workers or people in long-term care facilities. "We were hoping then maybe with the vaccine we could go a little sooner than later and now, it's like, we have no idea." "We didn't get to see them this year because of COVID," she said. But after two days of calling around, Hernandez could not find anyone who could give her one.īut mostly, she misses her grandchildren in London. In recent days, the vaccine confusion added another layer of stress: false hope.Įarlier this week, her adult children in Austin and London were led to believe over social media that vaccinations were easily available in her home of Fort Bend County. Marie Theresa Hernandez, who is over 65 and a professor of world cultures and literatures at the University of Houston, said a new surge in COVID-19 cases has put her and her family on edge. Many frantically called pharmacies, where they get their flu shots, for help. Vague messaging from state health officials left Texans who were desperate to get vaccinated without clear answers of where and how they schedule a vaccination. “Vaccine is not sitting on hospital shelves.” “We are certainly not sitting on vaccine,” Williams said. But in reality - as thousands of Texans would soon discover - doses of the vaccine remained in short supply.Ĭarrie Williams, a spokesperson for the Texas Hospital Association, refuted Abbott’s claim, saying the industry is moving as fast as possible. The state data suggested that there was an ample supply of vaccine - enough to expand eligibility to the 1B group weeks ahead of time. ![]()
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