FRANKLIN — St. Mary Parish is in the process of receiving its alloted portion of vaccinations for the COVID-19 pandemic as the state of Louisiana begins getting shipments of the vaccine.

Parish President David Hanagriff said at Wednesday’s St. Mary Parish Council meeting that the state will be receiving 58,100 vaccine dosess weekly for the next three or four weeks. Of those 1,800 have been provided to St. Mary Parish to be distributed by designated providers.

“Those providers of course are Teche Action, Walgreens in Morgan City and Franklin Foundation Hospital,” Hanagriff said.

Only 340 providers have been given an allotment from the state to provide the vaccine to Louisiana residents, and Hanagriff said that when a St. Mary Parish resident receives the first dose of the vaccine, the second dose will be guaranteed.

The state is currently only allowing residents designated in the Phase 1B Tier 1 group to receive the vaccines. People in this group include people ages 70 and older, health-related support, outpatient clinic providers, urgent care providers, community care providers, behavioral health providers, dialysis providers, home care providers, dental providers and students, residents and faculty and staff of allied health schools.

Hanagriff said further questions and comments can be sent to Department of Homeland Security David Naquin.