NEW YORK / LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Walmart Inc prepares to offer COVID-19 vaccinations in seven other states, as well as Chicago and Puerto Rico, this week and next, a company spokeswoman told Reuters, and is expanding beyond the two states where its pharmacists offer vaccinations.
The step of the world’s largest retailer comes as US President Joe Biden rushes to speed up a frustratingly slow vaccination campaign that has stranded about half of the 38 million shots in freezers.
This and next week, Walmart will begin providing vaccinations in Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, South Carolina and Texas, as well as Chicago and Puerto Rico, the spokeswoman said. The shots are only available for specific populations determined by each state and only at a handful of stores in each state.
Walmart is already vaccinating health workers in New Mexico and its home state of Arkansas.
Alabama health official Scott Harris said on Thursday that the state would work with Walmart to provide COVID-19 vaccinations. Walmart confirmed that deal, which comes under a federal partnership that Biden said on Thursday would launch in early February.
Harris said there will be another deal with a major pharmacy chain soon.
Walgreens, CVS, Kroger and Rite Aid have also done their best to vaccinate Americans in what is the largest and most complex immunization effort in US history. Those shots are needed to stop the virus, which killed more than 400,000 people in the United States and infected more than 24 million people.
The Trump administration stopped vaccine planning for states, who were asked to come up with their own plans, a move that left many pharmacy chains and grocery store pharmacies in the dark.
“We need to be flexible as we try to operate by state, but we feel it’s absolutely the right choice to go into this and help figure it out,” said Doug McMillon, Walmart’s chief executive officer. the Consumer Electronics Show last week. “That is the approach we are taking.”
He said Walmart “ensures that we can properly and safely treat the Pfizer vaccine, the Moderna vaccine.”
A spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services said many of Walmart’s pharmacies have signed up as vaccine suppliers in the state, but “only a handful” have received the doses so far due to the limited supply. “Once there is a wider range and we can start allocating more pharmacies regularly, they will be included,” said the spokesperson.
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson told Reuters it plans to “continue and expand” the existing partnership with Walmart, and that Walmart has agreed to become a major part of its distribution plan as additional vaccine doses become available.
Reporting by Melissa Fares in New York and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; edited by Jason Neely and Steve Orlofsky