Independent pharmacies on Oahu and Hawaii Island have administered first doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to about 10,000 residents and caregivers in approximately 1,700 small care homes and have now begun returning to administer second doses.
As of mid-February, 1,537 small care homes on Oahu and 152 small care homes on Hawaii Island, or about 90% of the total number of such facilities on those islands, have received vaccination visits, according to the state Department of Health.
Five major categories of homes were visited: adult residential care homes, most of which house five or less residents; community care foster family homes; developmental disabilities domiciliary homes; intermediate care facilities and adult foster homes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
On Hawaii Island, KTA Super Stores pharmacy helped with the vaccination the effort.
“We used 15 staff people from our four pharmacies to go into 153 homes from Ka‘u to Kohala,” Kerri Okamura, director of pharmacy operations at KTA said in a news release. “We want to take care of the communities that we’re in and we definitely want to be part of providing the vaccine to those who qualify.”