COVID vaccine will be available in pharmacy offices

People who need to apply the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine or the reinforcements can go to the clinics attached to the pharmacy (CAF) where it will be available. Although in a first phase the application in these establishments will only be done in the State of Mexico.

Marcos Pascual, commercial director of the National Association of Pharmacies of Mexico (Anafarmex) explained, in an interview with Political Animalthat the federal health authorities sought them out to invite them to join the COVID-19 vaccination strategy.

It was the same federal authorities who determined that the exercise will start in the State of Mexico and they themselves will be responsible for deciding if this advances to other states, which ones and when, or if it is just a pilot, Pascual explained.

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Of the number of establishments that could offer the vaccine in the State of Mexico, registration is barely being made because participation will be voluntary and not all of them will be able to meet the requirements.

“At this time we do not have the number of pharmacies that can be added because there are a series of requirements that must be met and that will be a limitation, for example, not all pharmacies comply with the official notice or the health license to be able to handle toxoids , vaccines or blood products,” he specified.

Secondly, he added, not all pharmacies have a cold network, which is essential to manage this toxoid.

CAFs interested in applying the COVID vaccine, which will be completely free, must register on the Anafarmex portal and pass the requested filters.

“Registration is now open and pharmacies that want to voluntarily participate can do so. At the end of the month it will be when we have an estimate of the number of participating establishments”, said the commercial director of Anafarmex.

Marcos Pascual also specified that there is still no date for the application to start in the CAFs, after the registration of the pharmacies and the endorsement that they meet the requirements to offer the vaccination, the logistics of distribution of the biologicals and their application.