RALEIGH, N.C. (WAVY/WNCN) – Starting this week, there will be another way to get a COVID-19 vaccine in North Carolina.
However, there’s no word on when Walgreens in Virginia will start administering the vaccine.
Walgreens locations began scheduling appointments for the shots early Tuesday morning. Many who tried to log into the system could not, though.
A spokesperson for Walgreens told WAVY, “Due to high demand, we experienced temporary outages on our vaccine scheduler earlier today. Our dedicated teams worked diligently to resolve the issues, and we can confirm our scheduler is working as intended. We continue to be committed to ensuring a seamless scheduling experience to achieve the shared goal of vaccinating our most vulnerable populations as quickly as possible.”
Vaccinations will begin Friday.
The vaccine is available at Walgreens as part of the Federal Retail Pharmacy Partnership with the CDC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The doses provided for this program are separate from North Carolina’s weekly allocation from the federal government. North Carolina Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Mandy Cohen, said in a news conference Tuesday, “Walgreens gets that allocation directly from the Federal government. It does not come through our state allocation which is different from the long term care program which is also run through Walgreens and CVS; that did come from our state allocation.”
The pharmacy chain warns supplies are limited.
A total of 31,200 doses will be spread across 300 locations in North Carolina.
Dr. Cohen said that means about 100 doses for individual sites.
The company did not provide a list of locations offering the vaccinations.
10 On Your Side called the stores in our viewing area and found Elizabeth City, Edenton and Kitty Hawk locations will have vaccine. The store in Kill Devils Hills does not expect to get a supply until later.
The vaccines will be administered by appointment only.
Walgreens will offer the vaccine following state guidelines.
In North Carolina, that means those 65 years old and up and health care workers can schedule appointments.
A valid work or government ID must be presented at the appointment.
Those eligible can sign up online at walgreens.com/schedulevaccine. You will need to download, print and complete this vaccination consent form. If you don’t bring the completed form, you will need to complete it at the pharmacy before your vaccination.
On Tuesday, Walgreens and Uber announced they are partnering to provide free rides to people receiving their COVID-19 vaccine.
Walgreens is also still vaccinating staff and residents in long term care facilities across the county.
The pharmacy chain said it reached 75% of facilities that signed up for the program and expects to finish the remaining first doses by mid-February.