BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana’s chief public health officer is warning hospitals, pharmacies and clinics that they should not be steering their coronavirus vaccine doses solely to their own patients.

Dr. Joe Kanter with the Louisiana Department of Health says the state has received reports of such favoritism. He sent a memo Tuesday to the vaccine providers that cautioned any found to be discriminating in favor of their patients and denying vaccine appointments to nonpatients could face “adverse action.”

The vaccine providers could face financial penalties, limits on future vaccine allocations, legal actions or other response from the state if found continuing to discriminate in its vaccine distribution.

(Story written by Melinda Deslatte/AP)

More From Hot 107.9