LITTLE ROCK, Ark — Last week, Gov. Hutchinson also announced that the COVID-19 variant which was first confirmed in the United Kingdom is in Arkansas. The governor and Dr. Romero both say, "this isn't a surprise."
The governor also expanded Phase 1B to include food manufacturing workers before moving to open it to everyone eligible under Phase 1B on Monday, March 8. This means 180 thousand more Arkansans are eligible.
This means several other groups are eligible to get the shot like people who work in grocery stores, manufacturing facilities, public transportation and essential government workers.
"All of those that are dealing really in public-facing or in a close environment or in a critical industry that needs to be covered," Gov. Hutchinson said.
Gov. Hutchinson said the reason for the abrupt expansion is recently mass clinics around the state have had open spots.
Just days ago in Jonesboro, he said a clinic had 3,000 available appointments and only filled less than 2,000.
"It did surprise me last week why we did have that gap and that's why we wanted to move very quickly on the first thing this Monday to open up all of 1B."
In Little Rock, Kavanaugh Pharmacy has booked all their appointments for the rest of the week after the phase expansion.
A volunteer at the pharmacy's COVID vaccine clinic said they are scheduling an appointment on average every 2 minutes.
"Everyone needs to be patient. because we don't have the manpower," said Kavanaugh Pharmacy's owner Anne Pace. "We are not going to get these 400,000 people vaccinated within the first week."
And for the first time during the vaccine distribution, Kavanaugh Pharmacy will be doing on-site vaccine clinics for businesses that can include all their employees.
Two more major announcements were made by the governor on Monday. Including moving Arkansans with mental or developmental disabilities from group 1C to 1B, as well as, starting a statewide vaccination appointment call center that will be open daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Gov. Hutchinson said Arkansans can call and directly schedule appointments for the department of health vaccine clinics or get help finding the nearest appointment.
"We want to be as helpful as possible and that is the reason for this," he said.
With these changes the governor is hopeful we will reach his target goal of having everyone in 1B vaccinated by the end of March.
"This is an urgent matter to me. This is where we want our team to get them in arms within 72 hours of whenever they arrive in the state," he said.
Dr. Jose Romero, with the Arkansas Department of Health, believes one of the major problems we are having in our state right now is people being on multiple lists.
They are encouraging Arkansas not to do that and if you are on multiple lists and get your shot, make sure you call and get your name removed so other people can move up the line.