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| REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson |
Many U.S. pharmacies, including those inside Kroger Co supermarkets and the drugstore chain of CVS Health Corp, say they will not be checking IDs before administering COVID-19 vaccines, leaving the door open to those who do not meet states’ guidelines to jump the line.
While the United States has distributed more than 30 million vaccine doses, a little over 11 million had been administered as of Thursday, a lag that prompted U.S. health secretary Alex Azar to call on states to begin vaccinating the vulnerable older population and those with certain chronic health conditions to get more vaccines into arms.
U.S. retailers face a choice of strictly enforcing state eligibility rules with on-site identity checks, or rely on an honor system that could allow people to ignore those guidelines but also get more people inoculated.
“State and local guidelines vary across the 40 public health jurisdictions we serve, but in most cases, identification will not be required to receive the vaccine,” a Kroger spokeswoman said. The biggest U.S. grocery chain has so far administered about 7,800 COVID-19 vaccines to healthcare workers and nursing home staff and residents. --->READ MORE HERE
When it comes to vaccine rollout, West Virginia has been a diamond in the rough.
At least, that's how Gov. Jim Justice describes it. The tiny state, home to less than 2 million people, has been leading the country in vaccinations, despite rejecting a federal partnership with big-name pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreens.
"We didn't sit on our hands," Justice said Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation. "I mean, we acted. We brought our local pharmacies in. We brought our local health departments in. We brought our National Guard in. And we started putting shots in people's arms."
By the end of December, West Virginia, one of the country's most rural and poorest states, gave almost all of its 28,000 nursing home facility staff and residents their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine; a stark accomplishment, given that only 429,000 doses were administered to long-term care facilities nationwide.
At least 7.5% of its population has already received the first of two coronavirus shots, according to a report by the Associated Press. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to related stories and resources:
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