The Magnolia Walmart’s pharmacy is administering COVID-19 vaccines, according to a post on the store’s Facebook page, making it the third store in Columbia County administering vaccinations against the coronavirus.
Wilson Bearden Pharmacy, Walgreens and Walmart were all administering the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine as of Thursday. Each has different steps to take to be placed on their waiting lists.
Vaccines are being administered to eligibility Group 1-B, which consists of people 65 years of age and older, people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, and workers in education, police, fire, first responce, corrections, food and agriculture, essential government, grocery store/meal delivery, postal/package delivery service, public transit, houses of worship and manufacturing.
Those who are eligible and want to receive a vaccine must notify one of the locations and follow their process to be put on the waiting list. Each location is performing its own vaccine rollout with waiting lists that are independent of the other locations, which means that a person could sign up to receive the vaccine from multiple locations.
“If they get it and they are on a list somewhere else, they need to call and get their name taken off the other list,” said Columbia County Health Unit Administrator Twana Hendricks. She also stated that the Health Unit would be receiving vaccines some time in the near future.
To sign up for the COVID-19 Vaccine from Wilson Bearden Pharmacy, contact their COVID-19 hotline at 870-235-3711. Sign up for the COVID-19 vaccine from Walgreens and Walmart can be completed online from each company’s website and through step-by-step help over the phone.
The Arkansas Department of Health also has a hotline Arkansans can call for assistance; the number is 1-800-985-6030. The ADH is staging mass vaccination clinics each week in the five hospital regions of the state, and call center workers answering the hotline can either help local residents set an appointment for one of those, or determine what pharmacies to call locally to set an appointment.
In the Southwest region, where Columbia County is located, one such clinic will be held tomorrow at the Fordyce Civic Center, 300 Highway 79-167 Bypass, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; a second clinic in the Southwest region is scheduled for March 18 at the Ouachita County Local Health Unit, 740 California Avenue in Camden, from 8 a.m. to noon.