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KINGSTON &mdash; About 200 people have been given the first shot in the arm by Cook&rsquo;s Pharmacy in Kingston, with owner and pharmacist Jim Gaudino saying that he is glad to be able to be a part of a moment in history.
				The family-owned pharmacy business, located at 777 Wyoming Ave., is one of 16 locations in Luzerne County that are giving out the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health&rsquo;s website. According to Gaudino, the process for getting doses of the vaccine began months ago, before the vaccine had even been formally released.
				&ldquo;You had to apply to the Department of Health as a provider, so we started doing our homework back in October,&rdquo; Gaudino said. &ldquo;Once we got approved, it was a matter of waiting for our shot to get, no pun intended, some shots.&rdquo;
				Gaudino said that the requirements from the DOH included having credentials as having accredited pharmacists and pharmacist assistants administering vaccines, along with a history of giving out previous vaccinations and proper storage for the vaccines themselves.
				According to Gaudino, Cook&rsquo;s Pharmacy is only distributing the vaccine created by Moderna, as the one developed by Pfizer requires storage at an extremely low temperature, something Cook&rsquo;s does not have the capability of doing. But Cook&rsquo;s can store the Moderna one, and Gaudino suggests the biggest difference between the two is the length of time between the first and second doses. Pfizer&rsquo;s first second dose comes 21 days after the first, while Moderna&rsquo;s comes 28 days later.
				Gaudino said that patients were first given the vaccine about three weeks ago, with the first 100 doses going to local dental hygienists and pharmacists on their own staff. Then, last week, Cook&rsquo;s was allocated another 100 doses, which were distributed even more quickly after the state made some changes to who qualifies under the 1A phase of vaccine distribution.
				&ldquo;So that pretty much opened the floodgates,&rdquo; Gaudino said with a laugh. &ldquo;A lot more demand, a lot less supply.&rdquo;
				Gaudino expects another 100 vaccinations to be allocated to the pharmacy by the end of the week. When patients arrive at Cook&rsquo;s Pharmacy to get vaccinated, they are taken into the building&rsquo;s second floor, which has had several rooms converted into observation rooms to ensure that none of those being vaccinated suffer any allergic reactions. So far, Gaudino said, everyone who&rsquo;s been vaccinated at Cook&rsquo;s has done so without incident.
				Patients can go to cookspharmacykingston.com to find information on how to get their name on a waiting list for future vaccine roll-out.
				Additionally, the following facilities are providing vaccines within Luzerne County:
				&#8226; Albert&rsquo;s Pharmacy, Pittston
				&#8226; Crestwood Pharmacy, Mountain Top
				&#8226; Geisinger CenterPoint, Pittston
				&#8226; Hazle Drugs, Hazleton
				&#8226; Kingston Practice of The Wright Center, Kingston
				&#8226; Kmart Pharmacy, Edwardsville
				&#8226; The Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy, Dallas
				&#8226; Rite Aid, Hazleton
				&#8226; Rite Aid, Wilkes-Barre
				&#8226; Weis Pharmacy, Hazleton
				&#8226; Weis Pharmacy, Nanticoke
				&#8226; Weis Pharmacy, Dallas
				&#8226; Wegmans, Wilkes-Barre
				&#8226; Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, Wilkes-Barre

Everyone wants a shot