Joe Biden’s government will ship 1 million vaccines directly to pharmacies in a pilot program

The administration of the President of the United States, Joe Biden, is about to begin a pilot program to ship covid-19 vaccines directly to pharmaciesas officials seek to speed up the pace of the country’s vaccination campaign.

The Biden team announced this on Tuesday As of Feb. 11 and during the trial, it will ship approximately one million doses per week to approximately 6,500 pharmacies across the country..

Shipments to states will also increase 5% to 10.5 million doses per week, compared to 10 million doses announced last week.

“This program will expand access to the vaccine nationwide,” Jeff Zients, coordinator of Biden’s Covid-19 response team, told reporters in a briefing. Shipments will increase as supply permits, but “due to current supply restrictions this will be limited next week,” he said.

Pharmacies that will offer vaccines in their stores include CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Walmart, and Costco, as well as networks of independent operators. Not all networks will participate immediately in all states, the White House said.

Zients also announced that the Biden administration would expand state payments for eligible expenses related to the pandemic, which dates back to early 2020. Those expenses include masks, gloves and mobilization of National Guard troops, he noted. .

This is expected to cost between $ 3 billion and $ 5 billion and will not require congressional approval, Zients said, but He urged the House to approve a new stimulus package for the corona virus. States need resources for other coronavirus response actions, including testing, genomic sequencing, and mass vaccination centers, said.

(With information from Bloomberg)

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