VA to make vaccines more widely available Sunday

Apr. 6—The Department of Veterans Affairs in Dayton will have a walk-in clinic this Sunday open to all veterans in the Dayton area, their spouses, widows, widowers and caregivers.

The clinic will administer the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine only, the Dayton VA said in a release Tuesday.

Veterans do not have to be enrolled in the VA health care system to get vaccinated.

No appointment is needed; the clinic is open on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Clinic hours will be 8 am until 1 pm Sunday, April 11.

The clinic is in Primary Care, building 341. Plenty of parking is available on the Dayton VA campus, 4100 W Third St.

President Joe Biden signed the "Save Lives" Act into law last month, expanding VA's legal authority to provide COVID-19 vaccines to all veterans, regardless of their VA health care enrollment status, as well as veteran spouses, caregivers and some beneficiaries.

The act removed some of the legal limits on the medical care VA can provide to veterans, based on health care eligibility and priority groups.

The expanded authority depends on readily available COVID-19 vaccine supply and requires VA to continue to prioritize vaccinations and healthcare delivery for veterans enrolled in VA care.

The act "increases the number of individuals who are eligible to get lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines from VA from 9.5 million to more than 33 million," VA Secretary Denis McDonough said March 24. "Meeting the task of vaccinating this expanded population will be a tremendous undertaking for the VA and will require a significant increase in our allocation of vaccine supply, but I am confident that VA's workforce is up to the task."

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