COVID-19 Shots Soon Available At Rite Aid In Sonora/Angels Camp
Sonora, CA – Rite Aid will soon be offering COVID-19 shots and scheduling at its Sonora and Angles Camp stores to being sometime in March or the beginning of April.
In the Tuolumne County Public Health coronavirus daily update, earlier reported here, it announced that Rite Aid is starting to schedule appointments on its website for those eligible. While area residents can get on the site to try and schedule an appointment, local pharmacy officials from both local stores tell Clarke Broadcasting they will be turned away for now. Sonora Rite Aid Pharmacy Manager Gage Mathivanan admits it is confusing and notes that currently, only stores in the more heavily populated areas have received the federal vaccine shipments,
“At this time, we don’t have the supply from the federal government yet.” disclosed Mathivanan. “We are anticipating that the vaccination will arrive three weeks from today, up to at the latest a month and a half.” He adds that when they do get the vaccine the scheduling tool will become operational at that time for both stores.
The number of doses could vary, as Mathivanan details, “Most likely we will get 100 shots per week. We will have a maximum of 20 appointments per day distributed from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.” State and local jurisdictions will continue to define eligibility requirements.
The most asked question, according to Mathivanan is whether those with higher risk health conditions will be eligible when they do get the vaccine. He advises the current scheduling will be “strictly only for those 65 and older.” Adding that it is not a company decision, but “the requirement provided by the federal government that gives us these vaccines.”
Regarding which vaccine the pharmacies will receive, most likely it will be the Moderna and Pfizer shot, which requires two doses. Mathivanan details that when scheduling an appointment online it will also give the date and time to come back for the final shot.
We will provide an update on when scheduling is open to the public after notification from the stores. For details on scheduling and what paperwork is needed, click here.
