(CNN) – Shipments of the Covid-19 vaccine will hit the pharmacy next week as part of a federal program that aims to vaccinate more people quickly.
Twenty-one “national pharmacies and independent pharmacy networks representing more than 40,000 pharmacies nationwide” are participating in the program, according to a government information sheet that lists all participating pharmacies or networks.
In phase one of the distribution plan, one million doses will be shipped from February 11 to approximately 6,500 stores, including Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, Publix and other pharmacies.
Many pharmacies are already vaccinating people against a variety of illnesses, including the flu and shingles. Some experts have suggested that pharmacies across the country will have the capacity to administer 100 million doses of the covid-19 vaccine once a supply is available.
“Under conservative assumptions, pharmacies have the capacity to meet the demand for 100 million doses of vaccines in a month when that level of vaccine supply is available,” said Steven Anderson, president and CEO of the National Association, last month. Chain Pharmacies.
Pharmacies are also “easily accessible in most communities, and most Americans live within five miles of a pharmacy,” Jeff Zients of the White House’s Covid-19 Response Coordinator said earlier this week.
Here’s how the plan will work.
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The first stage only includes a few pharmacies in certain states
Pharmacies that will receive the vaccine will be selected by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the states, taking into account “ their ability to reach some of the populations most at risk for disease from Covid-19, ” including socially vulnerable communities, ”said Zients.
“In the early stages, many pharmacies across the country will not have vaccines or have very limited supplies,” Zients said Tuesday.
CVS and Walgreens will receive much of the first batch of vaccines.
As of Thursday, CVS said it will offer doses to eligible individuals in some of its stores in 11 states, including California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
CVS will have about a quarter of a million initial doses in total.
Walgreens said it will begin offering vaccines in 15 states on Feb. 12, including Chicago and other locations in Illinois, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, including New York City, North Carolina., Puerto Rico. , Vermont, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.
Not all CVS or Walgreens pharmacies in these states will have the vaccine in these early stages.
However, “as more inventory becomes available, the company will expand to other states, while the number of stores selling vaccines will increase,” CVS said in a press release.
Walmart will offer the vaccine in some of its stores in Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas , Utah, Louisiana and Wyoming.
“Once a store or club has received the order, our online scheduler is available to make appointments,” Walmart said in a statement.
Walmart said last month it expects to be able to administer 10 to 13 million doses per month “when supplies and allocations permit” at its more than 5,000 pharmacies in the United States and Puerto Rico.
CVS has said it eventually hopes to be able to deliver up to 20 to 25 million injections per month across its nearly 10,000 stores.
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You must qualify for a vaccination before you can make an appointment
Program pharmacies follow state guidelines and only vaccinate people who qualify in that state.
Most states have followed the CDC’s recommendation and currently offer vaccinations to front-line workers and the elderly in long-term care settings.
States like Florida and Georgia also offer vaccines for people 65 and older.
Those who qualify can register for an appointment.
Appointments can be made online or by phone
Experts hope vaccination appointments will eliminate waiting times for customers and make the process similar to getting a flu shot at the local pharmacy.
There is normally a 15 minute wait after receiving the COVID-19 injection to ensure that people do not have an allergic reaction.
Appointments can be made online or by phone.
At Walgreens, appointments can be booked through a vaccine planner. You can search by state on the CVS website.
By demanding from everyone up to now, stores can also ensure that people are socially detached and that there is no crowds.
“Vaccinations are by appointment, so we know how many people need to be observed,” a Walmart spokesperson told CNN in an email.
In locations where Walmart will host vaccination clinics, it will have stickers on the floor to mark social aloofness. The stores will also divide the seats so that people are socially distant.
Anyone can get the vaccine for free, even people who are uninsured or underinsured.
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Challenges include sourcing and personnel
Providing vaccines at this stage is the biggest challenge. Only a million doses will be shipped to pharmacies initially, and it is unclear if and when the allocation to pharmacies will be increased.
That will increase over time as more supply becomes available.
CVS has hired about 10,000 pharmacy technicians to administer coronavirus vaccines and tests, said Michael DeAngelis, a CFS spokesperson. It plans to have approximately 90,000 workers, including pharmacists, licensed pharmacy technicians and nurses, administer vaccines.
Walmart has not provided a figure on how many pharmacy employees it will need to add for the vaccine. But it offers a bonus to current staff for recommending qualified candidates, a Walmart spokesperson told CNN in an email.
Supply constraints and a mosaic system of state vaccine appropriateness are not the only challenges facing these chains and their staff.
Pharmacy chains are also bracing for misinformation about the vaccine online.
Giant Eagle, which has more than 400 stores in five states, has set up talking points for its more than 600 pharmacists who will administer the vaccine. The goal is to help combat false information about the virus, Victor Vercammen, the network’s director of pandemics, said in an interview last month.
“We also do our best to educate people… to help them analyze what might be on social media, what could be a fact, what could be an opinion, on topics like the safety of the covid vaccine, ”he said.
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Pharmacies are ready, says trade group
Once the vaccine supply is available, pharmacies across the country will be able to vaccinate seven people an hour and 100 million a month, even with current staff, according to the National Association of Chain Pharmacies.
The group’s model assumes that 40,000 pharmacy chains, including traditional pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreens, supermarkets such as Kroger, and major retailers such as Walmart and Costco, can administer 3.3 million vaccines per day.
The model does not include independent pharmacies in the United States that will also administer the vaccine and are part of the federal association.
If all of the nearly 17,000 independent pharmacies administering immunizations had the covid-19 vaccine, they could be administering about 1.28 million a day, according to the National Association of Community Pharmacists.