(Adds comments from AmerisourceBergen and Walgreens)
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (Reuters) – The White House will begin shipping coronavirus vaccines directly to pharmacies next week in addition to ongoing shipments to states, boosting the weekly supply of shots nationwide to 11.5 million, a top assistant said Tuesday.
US President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 response coordinator, Jeff Zients, said the program will start on Feb. 11 and make 1 million doses available to 6,500 stores. As supply grows, the program could expand to as many as 40,000 stores, he said.
Biden said last month that the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine has been a “dismal failure” so far and pledged to increase the speed at which shots are delivered to Americans, with an emphasis on ensuring fair access regardless of geography. , race or ethnicity.
The Trump administration announced in November that it had partnered with 19 nationwide pharmacy chains and networks – including CVS Health Corp and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc – to start distributing COVID-19 vaccines as soon as they became available.
The federal government will distribute one million vaccine doses to the 6,500 stores next week, Zients said, adding that the number will increase over time.
That’s in addition to the 10.5 million doses the federal government plans to ship to states and territories weekly for the next three weeks, he added.
“This will provide more locations for people to get vaccinated in their communities,” said Zients, adding that supply restrictions will limit the program in the initial period.
The original pharmacy sites were selected to improve access to vaccines in hard-to-reach areas and among socially vulnerable communities, Zients said.
CVS said in a press release that its pharmacies will participate in the program. It will receive 250,000 doses directly from the federal government for the initial rollout, CVS said, adding that it could provide a total of 20 million to 25 million doses per month.
Walgreens said it will begin vaccinating people in some stores in 15 states and jurisdictions, including Illinois, New York and Puerto Rico, on Feb. 12.
AmerisourceBergen Corp said some of its network pharmacies in the likes of Kentucky, Kansas and Guam also plan to order shots through the program when it launches next week.
Zients also said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will reimburse states for a number of COVID-related costs they have incurred since the U.S. coronavirus outbreak last January, such as for personal protective equipment and the deployment of the national guard.
He said Congress does not need to approve funds for FEMA to do this and that total payments to states will be between $ 3 billion and $ 5 billion.
Zients added that the federal government has purchased equipment that healthcare providers need to get six doses from each vial of Pfizer Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine instead of five.
The Biden government has said it is willing to use wartime emergency forces as needed to secure the specialized low dead space syringes and other supplies needed to eliminate vaccine spills and improve delivery efficiency.
The great winter storm that hit the East Coast of the United States this week has not disrupted vaccine deliveries, but has forced some vaccine administration sites to close or reduce opening hours, Zients said. (Reporting by Carl O’Donnell, Susan Heavey and Trevor Hunnicutt; edited by Bill Berkrot)