Texas received more than 2.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine this week, and smaller pharmacies are now scheduling appointments. Of those 2.5 million doses, 146,000 were given to 65 providers in Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton Counties.
Kroger Pharmacy has been staffing five lanes at the hub at Fair Park. Individual Kroger stores are now offering the vaccine as well.
"We're really going to be ramping up our efforts in our stores to try to make sure our patients, anyone in our grocery stores, any employees, anyone who's interested can come get vaccine," says Jeff Loesch, Director of Pharmacy for Kroger. "We're starting to see larger numbers of doses coming into our individual pharmacies. We're starting to get federal allocations coming in from the federal government."
People can register here. Loesch says smaller pharmacies can be more accessible to people who live in an outlying area, far from a hub.
"In some of those outlying communities, we're making sure our pharmacies are ready to go and that we've got vaccine there to take care of those patients," he says.
Loesch also says smaller vaccination sites may appeal to some people hesitant to go to a large hub.
"There are some who want to go their physician or their pharmacy to get vaccinated. We want to make sure they've got that access to be able to do so," he says.
Registration is available at Albertson's website here and with Tom Thumb here.
People can register with Walgreen's website here.
Reservations can be made at CVS here. Monday afternoon, the chain said all but 18 of its stores in Texas were fully booked.
Monday, the City of Garland temporarily shut down its registration site, saying has experienced a high "no-show rate" for people who have appointments. The Garland Health Department says it is trying to work through a backlog of 20,000 people who had already registered.
Also Monday, Garland announced it would begin walk-in vaccinations for people over 80 at the city's public health clinic at 206 Carver Dr. Garland, TX 75040. People over 80 can be vaccinated without an appointment from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
The Garland Health Department urges people to register with multiple locations in North Texas, saying people can visit here to find additional options.
