HIGHLAND PARK, Mich. – Efforts to vaccinate citizens against COVID-19 are underway in Highland Park.
Highland Park Mayor Hubert Yopp said people were supposed to be vaccinated at a Highland Park CVS, but the CVS has closed.
According to a communications director with CVS, the Highland Park store did not renew its lease and closed on Jan. 2. The closure has drawn criticism from Mayor Yopp.
CVS in Michigan has not yet been chosen to serve as vaccination sites in Michigan, but mayor Yopp believes it will be. He said a CVS location on Woodward Avenue would have played a huge role in helping people get vaccinated.
Watch the video above for the full report.
We made the difficult business decision to not renew the lease for our Highland Park store and it closed on January 2. To ensure that our patients’ pharmacy care was not interrupted, we transferred prescriptions to the CVS Pharmacy a few miles away at 18600 Livernois. We also have two other locations a few miles away on West Mcnichols and on Joseph Campau. All employees at our Highland Park store who wanted to remain with CVS were transferred to one of our other locations.
Regarding COVID-19 vaccinations, at this time, Michigan is not one of the 12 states in which we are offering vaccines through the federal pharmacy partnership. There are 21 national and regional pharmacies in the partnership and 2 to 3 pharmacies were selected to participate in vaccinations in each state.
As vaccine supply increases, we will expand vaccinations into more stores and more states. In addition, last week we announced a community-based strategy to address potential inequities related to COVID-19 vaccine access in underserved communities, with a particular focus on Black and Hispanic populations. In addition to expanding vaccinations to more stores, our efforts will include:
-Reaching out our patients and members in vulnerable communities to help them make an appointment and to answer questions or concerns they may have about being vaccinated
-Working with our extensive network of community-based leaders and nonprofit organizations to reach vulnerable patients to help them make appointments and distribute educational material of COVID-19 vaccines
-Using mobile vaccination vans and launching community-based clinics in March and April
-Working with Lyft and nonprofit partners to help underserved communities access vaccination appointments with free or discounted rides to vaccination sites
Mike DeAngelis -- Senior Director, Corporate Communications
Clinics across Wayne County began opening on Tuesday. A list of clinics and the communities they’re serving is available below. There is a note included in the list if that particular clinic is already completely booked.
The full list of clinics and how to register can be found below.
(App users: If the table does not show, click here.)
There are no walk-up appointments and seniors must make an appointment by calling the number for the site in their communities. The vaccines will only be for the residents in the specific communities.
More information can be found on the official Wayne County website here.