Governor Asa Hutchinson has released details on how the COVID-19 vaccine will be administered in Arkansas.  The vaccinations will be offered in three phases.

   The first group, Phase 1-A, is now underway and has been since about the middle of last month.  This phase includes health care workers including hospital employees.  This includes those in primary care, urgent care, college and university health centers, K-12 health clinics and school nurses, dental clinics, pharmacies, home health, private care/personal care, hospice care, dialysis centers,, corrections officers, and blood donation centers.  Long-term facility residents and staffs are also included in the first group.  The Governor has also added EMS, firefighters, and law enforcement officials serving as first responders will be added to the Phase 1-A priority group.  Plans are to try to complete this first group by the end of the month.

    The second group has been deemed PHase1-B.  This group is due to begin receiving their vaccinations in February.  Included in this group are people 70 and older, teachers and school staff, food and agricultural workers, firefighters and police officers not included in 1-A, manufacturing workers, public transit workers, child care workers, grocery store workers, U.S. Postal Service workers, and essential government workers.  The Governor says there are around 400,000 of these individuals in the state and this group should be completed by the end of March.

    Phase 1-C is scheduled to start in April. This group would include people aged 65 to 69, people aged 16 to 64 with high-risk medical conditions as well as other industries.  These other industries will include transportation and logistics, water and wastewater, food service, shelter and housing, finance, public safety, I.T and communication, energy, media, and public health.

   As of this week, we’ve heard the vaccines will be administered at the Express RX Pharmacies in Hope and Prescott (formerly AllCare) and the Cabun Rural Health Clinic on Main Street in Hope.