DOH standing order: COVID vaccines available to anyone 6 months and older

State health officials issued a standing order Wednesday that authorizes New Mexico pharmacists and health care providers to offer COVID-19 vaccines to anyone 6 months old and older without a prescription.

The new order puts a finer point on guidance issued Sept. 5 by the New Mexico Department of Health that recommended the updated COVID vaccine for “any New Mexico resident who wants to be vaccinated.”

The new standing order is intended to overcome “hesitation” among some pharmacists and providers concerned by the narrow uses approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration for the vaccine, the agency said in a statement issued Wednesday.

“The standing order addresses barriers that have prevented some New Mexicans from getting vaccinated,” the statement said. While most New Mexicans have been able to obtain vaccinations, “some pharmacists and health care providers were hesitant to vaccinate certain groups without formal prescription backup.”

The updated COVID vaccine targeting new strains of the virus is trickling into New Mexico and is expected to be widely available later this month, DOH officials have said.

“This removes hesitation some providers had about vaccinating people who would benefit from the vaccine but fell outside the narrow FDA approval categories,” said Dr. Miranda Durham, the agency’s chief medical officer. “COVID-19 vaccines remain safe and effective tools for preventing severe illness, hospitalization, and death.”

The standing order is part of ongoing efforts to make COVID vaccines more accessible statewide, health officials said.

“We are clearing the way for New Mexicans who want the vaccine to get the vaccine,” Health Secretary Gina DeBlassie said in the statement. “This standing order ensures that barriers don’t prevent people from protecting their health.”

CVS, one of the nation’s largest pharmacy chains, said last week that the Sept. 5 guidance issued by the New Mexico DOH allows CVS to offer the vaccines without a prescription at its pharmacies statewide.

That action reversed an earlier position by CVS that the chain could not administer the vaccine in New Mexico, even to people with a prescription. CVS agreed to make the vaccine available without a prescription after DOH issued the Sept. 5 guidance.

The DOH guidance recommends the updated COVID vaccine for a broad range of people, including:

• Anyone 65 and older.
• Children ages 6-24 months.
• People ages 2 to 64 at high risk of severe outcomes from COVID illness.
• All pregnant, recently pregnant and lactating women.
• People in congregate or long-term care settings.

The new guidance also offers a blanket recommendation for healthy people ages 2 to 64 “who desire protection from COVID-19” and allows people to “self-attest” to their immunocompromised status or high-risk conditions. “Vaccinators should not deny COVID-19 vaccination to a person due to lack of documentation,” it says.