COVID-19 outbreaks have forced temporary closures at some pharmacies in Oklahoma, Texas and Miami.
"It's been bad before, but right now there's pharmacies closing because everybody in the pharmacy has got COVID," Mark Villines, pharmacist at Calera, Okla.-based Gallipot Pharmacy, told local NBC affiliate KTEN. The news outlet also reported temporary pharmacy closures in Texas.
The closures come amid high demand for COVID-19 testing and also disrupt customers' access to medications and vaccines. A Walgreens Pharmacy location on Miami Beach told CBS Miami in a Jan. 12 report that it closed for several days after a COVID-19 outbreak among staff.
In a statement shared with CBS Miami, Walgreens said in the event of temporary store closures, pharmacy services would be available at nearby locations and advised customers to call or use the online pharmacist chat.
"We make every effort to deploy additional staffing resources to any store that may be impacted so that we can resume normal operations as quickly as possible and minimize disruption for our customers and patients," the statement said.