1,000 doses available in an overnight COVID-19 vaccine clinic Friday in Orléans

Finding a COVID-19 booster shot these days is sometimes like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

One Orléans pharmacist saw how much trouble people were having and decided to do something about it. 

Compounding pharmacist Andrew Hanna at the Pharmasave on Tenth Line Road in Orléans will hold an overnight booster event starting at 8 p.m. Friday.

"We have a lot of people excited for it," says Hanna. "No pharmacy has ever done an overnight COVID vaccine clinic in history. We have over 1,000 shots available and we’re staring at 8 p.m. and we’re going right to 12 noon the next day."

Booking a booster shot has not always been easy and this local pharmacy is fulfilling an important need.

Jeanie Delisle is a Pharmasave customer and is also volunteering her time Friday to help organize lineups and keep things running smoothly all night long.

"You know, he’s got such a heart of gold. That’s the part that inspires me about him," says Delisle. "We just want to make sure that these doses don’t go to waste and they get into people's arms. Because you’ve got 30 days to put them out there. Other than that, they go to waste and that’s just sad to see. We wouldn’t want that to happen."

During the overnight clinic, if you happen to need a prescription at 2 a.m., you can get that done too. 

"If the doors are open, we’re open for business," says Hanna. "But the vaccines are what we’re going to be focussing on."

Hanna is hoping to administer all 1,000 doses, and he says if this goes as well as anticipated, it won't be the last night clinic he does.

"This would be our pilot project, I guess, overnight," says Hanna. "Learn from it, and take it and even enhance it in the next couple weeks towards maybe the end of the month, and do another overnight clinic."

The overnight clinic is for walk-in only, and is available to anyone who wants a vaccine. No appointment necessary.