By Jim Salter The Associated Press
O FALLON, Mo. (AP) The snow, ice and bitter cold gripping Missouri have delayed people from coronavirus vaccinations, including those who signed up for mass inoculation events that had been scheduled for this week.
The governor s office said it was trying to reschedule the National Guard-run events, but that registrants should seek vaccinations elsewhere in the meantime.
The cancellations followed a storm that dumped several inches of snow in much of the state and sent temperatures plunging below zero, including in Kansas City, where it was 9 degrees below zero on Tuesday, a record for the date.
By Jim Salter The Associated Press
O FALLON, Mo. (AP) Republican Gov. Mike Parson plans to divert thousands of unused doses of coronavirus vaccine from CVS and Walgreens pharmacies to other state-enrolled vaccinators in Missouri to help the slower-than-expected vaccination process, his spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Spokeswoman Kelli Jones said the administration has requested the return of 25,000 doses from CVS and Walgreens, which would then be re-routed to county health departments, medical hospitals and clinics, and hundreds of other state-approved vaccinators.
CVS and Walgreens were tasked with providing vaccinations at long-term care facilities under a Trump administration plan unveiled in December. Jones said Missouri s new plan won’t affect shots for workers and residents at those facilities that have been ravaged by COVID-19.
Data posted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that for several days, Missouri ranked last among the states in the percentage of residents getting a first vaccine dose.
By Jim Salter The Associated Press
O FALLON, Mo. (AP) CVS Health plans to administer about 100,000 coronavirus vaccinations next week at Missouri long-term care facilities as the vaccination rollout expands beyond health-care workers, the company said Monday.
The pharmacy chain will vaccinate residents and staff at more than 40,000 long-term care facilities across the U.S. The first of those vaccinations have already begun, but Missouri facilities will see their first vaccinations starting Dec. 28, CVS Health spokesman Charlie Rice-Minoso said.
CVS and its competitor, Walgreens, are facilitating the inoculations at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
Health-care workers were the first to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Nursing homes were next on the list because the virus has killed more than 110,000 people at long-term care facilities nationwide, including about half of the 4,947 people who have died of the disease in Missouri.
Parson urged to extend mail-in voting
By Jim Salter The Associated Press
O FALLON, Mo. (AP) Dozens of civil rights advocates, faith leaders and others on Friday urged Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to extend into next year a law allowing more people to cast their votes by mail to avoid the risk of contracting the coronavirus through in-person voting.
A letter signed by people representing nearly five dozen organizations asked the Republican governor to use his emergency authority to extend the law he signed in June.
The law set to expire on Dec. 31 allows those considered at high-risk of the virus – people age 65 and older, residents of long-term care facilities and people with certain preexisting health conditions – to vote absentee without having their ballots notarized. Anyone else can cast a mail-in ballot but needs to get it notarized.