Oregon Health Authority and its partners provided an update on COVID-19 vaccinations and more. The recording (including ASL interpretation) is available here, and the slides from today’s briefing are here.
Among the topics discussed was a new partnership. The Federal Retail Pharmacy Program is a collaboration between the federal government, states and territories, and 21 national pharmacy partners and independent pharmacy networks to increase access to COVID-19 vaccination across the country.
- The program is coming online in Oregon. Shipments arrived on Feb. 10 at 127 retail pharmacies in Oregon.
- This program offers locations in 27 of Oregon’s 36 counties. These locations include 103 Safeway/Albertson’s locations, 13 Costco Locations and 11 Health Mart (independent affiliate) pharmacies.
- The retail partners in this program will screen for the appropriate age band per Oregon’s vaccine plan, starting with people 75 and older.
Eligible Oregonians can make appointments at these retailers’ websites, but note that each site is currently only scheduled to receive 100 doses per week. That means there will not be enough vaccines to immunize all eligible Oregonians at these locations.
The chain pharmacies’ websites are as follows; individual Health Marts will need to be contacted directly:
Due to the limited federal supply going to these pharmacies, you can also go to covidvaccine.oregon.gov to find out if you are eligible, sign up for notifications, and get connected to county-specific information about vaccinations.
This article first appeared in the Feb. 12, 2021 issue of Oregon Coronavirus Update.