In response to a national effort to accelerate the safe reopening of schools, Meijer is partnering with the Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA) on plans to launch a series of vaccine clinics at its stores next week to streamline the process for vaccinating teachers and school staff across the state.
The retailer said it will hold a dozen clinics – administering more than 10,000 doses – to pre-registered teachers and school staff in grades pre-K to 12 by the end of next week, according to a news release from Meijer. Patients will be asked to verify their school affiliation and have proper identification when pre-registering through the company’s vaccine registration process. Teachers in Indiana can also register by texting ISTA to 75049, which will help them identify as a K-12 school employee as vaccines continue to become available.
“We are very pleased to continue to support the State of Indiana with this extremely important initiative,” said Jason Beauch, vice president of pharmacy for Meijer. “With nearly 40 stores in Indiana, our pharmacy teams have been working across the state for weeks to administer vaccine doses to seniors, and we’re proud to broaden this outreach to include teachers, who are such an important part of our communities.”
As one of the retailers chosen to be a state and federal partner, Meijer said it has already worked directly with local school districts to administer more than 3,000 doses to teachers who registered with its vaccine registration process. Meijer will continue coordinating clinics in the coming weeks based on the number of doses it receives from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the release states.
During the last few weeks, Meijer has administered more than 25,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses in Indiana, and more than 200,000 throughout the Midwest since mid-January.
The vaccine clinics conducted by Meijer are not open to walk-ups. Participants must register through the retailer’s online system in order to be scheduled for a vaccine. For non-teacher and school staff, patients can text COVID to 75049, go online at clinic.meijer.com or simply visit their local Meijer pharmacy and ask to register.
The retailer is not releasing the location of the clinics as registered customers will be contacted directly with an appointment time and location once an appointment window becomes available for them.
For additional information on Meijer, visit www.meijer.com.
