PINE BLUFF, Ark. — New recommendations from the CDC said anyone who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine should now plan to get a booster shot 8 months after their second dose.
The FDA still needs to review the plan, but those third doses could begin in roughly a month.
The announcement comes as local pharmacies in Arkansas are reopening vaccine clinics to keep up with the recent surge.
Doctor's Orders Pharmacy in Pine Bluff closed their vaccine clinic at the beginning of June, but owner Lelan Stice said they had to reopen it on Wednesday to keep up with the demand.
"Last week our slowest day was 175 vaccines and our busiest day last week was 225," he said.
Stice said that's a jump up from the average 20 shots per day his pharmacy was giving 6 weeks ago.
"We're taking the vaccine and the COVID testing and we are going to move it back down to the clinic where we can handle that separately from filling prescriptions," he said.
You might think this boost in vaccinations is due to the FDA recently approving booster shots for the immunocompromised, but Stice said that's only a small portion of the people coming in to get their shot.
"The uptick has been primarily because the Delta variant has been so prevalent in Arkansas," he said.
While the Pine Bluff pharmacy is welcoming people back into their clinic, Kavanaugh Pharmacy in Little Rock still has the "closed sign" on their door.
But owner Anne Pace said that won't be for long.
"Just discussions yesterday we decided that we will be reopening our vaccine center early in September," she said.
Pace said that will give them time to prepare for when booster shots do begin, as pharmacy hours have already been extended due to the increase.
"We've probably gone from maybe 20-25 shots a day to probably almost 50 or so. So we've doubled in numbers. That's not necessarily how many that are wanted, but it's how much we can handle at this point," she said.
Handling the vaccine clinic also means more staff and volunteers are needed, but Pace believes that's not where they'll go empty-handed.
"When we closed the vaccine center, it was a very emotional day for a lot of people and they were just really sad, so already I've started to get a lot of calls," she said.
Both pharmacies have also had a major uptick in COVID-19 testing. Doctor's Orders Pharmacy even ran out of tests on Tuesday.