JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Some Walmart pharmacy locations will begin offering the COVID-19 vaccine starting next week in Missouri.
State health department director Dr. Randall Williams announced the new program Thursday during Gov. Mike Parson’s briefing.
The program is run through the federal government. Doses would come directly from the federal supply and would be in addition to the amount the state is allocated every week. Williams said the state is expecting to get a list of participating Walmart and Health Mart locations on Monday. He said as of now, he’s not sure how many pharmacies will be on the list.
“It's not going to be a big program. It's not going to be a lot of vaccine. And as of this moment in time, I do not know which pharmacies they get,” Williams told 5 On Your Side’s Abby Llorico in an interview moments before making the announcement. “My understanding is they are going to start out with Walmart, but I don't know which Walmart in which parts of Missouri are going to get that vaccine next week.”
Williams said the goal of this federal program is to get the vaccine into underserved communities. The locations will still follow the state's distribution plan as far as who qualifies to receive the vaccine right now.
The program is set to begin on Feb. 11.
So far, about 600,000 total doses have been administered in Missouri so far, according to the state’s vaccine dashboard.
Missouri is currently in Phase 1B – Tier 2, which added on anyone 65 and older and all adults with certain high-risk conditions.
As for when the state could move into the next phases of releasing the vaccine, Williams said it might not be for another couple of months, and it all depends on more vaccines being approved. Williams said the Johnson & Johnson vaccine could be approved later this month, with doses becoming available by early March. The AstraZeneca might become available in late March.
If all of that comes into play, he’s hopeful to open up the vaccine to everyone in the state sometime in May.
“My hope would be that we would be moving into Tier 3 of Phase 1B in early-April, mid-April. And that we would get to Phase 3 by May, mid-May,” Williams explained.
Phase 1B – Tier 3 in Missouri includes teachers, grocery store workers, elected officials and other “critical infrastructure” employees “who keep the essential functions of society running,” according to the state’s vaccine information website.
Phase 3 is the final phase in Missouri’s vaccine distribution plan, which includes everyone who wasn’t part of previous tiers.
Gov. Parson credited Missourians for taking steps to bring down critical COVID-19 numbers, including the positivity rate, which is down to 9.3% from a high of 24.4% in November.