Heartland pharmacy prepares for COVID booster shot

Published: Sep. 24, 2021 at 6:35 PM CDT
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CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KFVS) - Millions more Americans are now eligible to get a third COVID-19 vaccine under a plan approved by the Centers for Disease Control.

One pharmacist said it’s unknown when they’ll get state approval to administer the booster shots to those who are now eligible, but they’re still getting a head start.

”There’s going to be a lot of people that need it,” Catherine Heaton said.

Pharmacist Catherine Heaton already sees a high demand for the shot.

“We get a lot of calls with confusion as to if we’re able to do it yet or not so I mean we have a contact list just kind of like what we did in the beginning when it first came out,” Heaton said.

Heaton said they’ve had this plan in place at Broadway Pharmacy since COVID booster shots first came into discussion.

“We will be ready to go as soon as we get that stamp of approval and we can roll on out and give those shots,” she said.

If you’re eligible, you can expect to get it at a mass vaccination clinic.

“Obviously if you can give 600 shots in a day there’s no way we can do that here in the pharmacy, so you know if we’re at the 4-h building, or show me center or something like that, we can get a lot more people vaccinated quickly and that’s just going to be better protection for our community,” she said.

She plans to hold clinics at long-term care facilities again too.

“We did that a lot in the beginning you know cause they were one of the first eligible so we made sure we reached out to all our facilities obviously and to those we don’t currently service but we wanted to make sure we’re helping to protect our community,” she said.

Over at The Chateau Girardeau, nursing director, Shelly Miller said some residents’ families are asking if their loved ones can get the shot.

“That’s going to continue as it comes out on the news even more that we will start to get more calls about that I’m sure,” Miller said.

Miller said they also plan to host clinics once the shot is approved.

“We are working closely with our residents and our families; we’ve developed a really good trust with them and they know that we are monitoring closely with the news and what’s coming out with CDC and we try to get that information out to them as soon as we can,” she said.

Heaton is hopeful to get the state’s approval next week, but right now the date is unknown.

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