GREENFIELD — Walmart’s pharmacy will begin administering COVID-19 vaccines on Friday, Feb. 12.
Eligible individuals can schedule a vaccine appointment at walmart.com once appointments are available. As of Wednesday, health care workers and those age 65 and older are eligible for vaccinations in Indiana.
More than 1,000 Walmart and Sam’s Club pharmacies in 22 states are receiving federal vaccine allocations this week, with an emphasis on locations that reach customers in under-served communities with limited access to healthcare, according to a news release from the retailers.
The release reports the companies consulted with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and states and took into account the population density, customer demographics, infection rates and availability of local health care resources, as well as other factors, to identify many of the participating locations. That includes pharmacies located in medically under-served areas as designated by the Health Resources and Services Administration.
“Ninety percent of the country lives within 10 miles of a Walmart,” said Dr. Cheryl Pegus, executive vice president, health & wellness. “We’re committed to helping people live better — and healthier lives — in Indiana, and we take that role very seriously. We want to help the country re-open, but we can only achieve that through widespread COVID-19 vaccination. We’re proud to work together with the federal government, states, communities, customers and associates to expand access to the vaccine and reach that goal.”
Walmart, located at 1965 N. State St. in Greenfield, joins four other locations administering COVID-19 vaccines in Hancock County: Hancock Regional Hospital, the Hancock County Health Department and Kroger Pharmacy, all in Greenfield; and Meijer Pharmacy in McCordsville.
As of Wednesday afternoon, appointments were available at the health department and Kroger as early as Feb. 17. At the hospital, the next available date was Feb. 26.
Links to sign up for a vaccine appointment are available at ourshot.in.gov. Individuals can also call 2-1-1 for assistance with making an appointment at clinics using the state’s scheduling system.
Dr. Lindsay Weaver, chief medical officer for the Indiana State Department of Health, said Wednesday that the state plans to decrease the age eligibility for COVID-19 vaccinations to 60 as soon as possible.
“When we have enough vaccine and have vaccinated an appropriate portion of the 60-to-65 age group, we will then incrementally expand eligibility to two additional groups: Hoosiers age 50 to 59, and Hoosiers under age 50 who suffer from certain co-morbidities,” Weaver added.
The latter expansion will target an estimated 51,000 Indiana residents with conditions that put them at increased risk of severe illness, she continued. Those conditions include people receiving dialysis, those with sickle cell disease, recipients of a solid organ transplant, those with Down syndrome, patients actively receiving cancer treatment or who have within the last three months, and people with active primary lung cancer or active hematologic cancer, like lymphoma, leukemia and multiple myeloma.
“We know that these categories do not include all Hoosiers who have conditions that could put them at greater risk from COVID, but we are working to expand to those most at risk as quickly as our vaccine supplies allow us to do so,” Weaver said.
As of early Wednesday, more than 10,400 Hancock County residents had received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and almost 4,100 were fully vaccinated. Statewide, more than 736,000 had received a first dose and more than 258,000 were fully vaccinated.
The county’s COVID-19 advisory level signifying community spread of the virus remained orange Wednesday, the second most severe.
No new COVID-19 deaths were recorded for the county Wednesday, keeping its total at 126. Another 27 new cases raised that total to 7,236.
