Walmart, Amazon and Kroger play a role in Biden’s COVID-19 plan

Walmart, Amazon and Kroger will play key roles in President Biden’s latest plan to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House revealed Thursday.

The retail giants have agreed to sell rapid in-home COVID-19 tests to the public at cost from the end of the week, a senior administration official said. The tests will be available for purchase online or in store with a discount of up to 35% for the next three months.

Officials at Walmart, Amazon and Kroger did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

Teleprinter	Security	Last	Switch	Switch %
WMT	WALMART, INC.	146.42	-1.04	-0.71%
AMZN	AMAZON.COM, INC.	3 484.16	-41.34	-1.17%
KR	THE KROGER CO.	46.13	-0.16	-0.35%

The Biden administration has unveiled its plan to expand access to affordable COVID-19 testing as part of a six-pronged effort to deal with an increase in cases due to the delta variant. The plan includes COVID-19 booster shots and mandatory vaccinations for federal employees.

Besides partnering with private companies, the administration will use the Defense Production Act and nearly $ 2 billion to procure around 280 million rapid COVID-19 tests.

In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services’ free COVID-19 testing program will expand to provide service in 10,000 pharmacies nationwide. The administration will also order Medicaid to offer free home testing to beneficiaries.

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Biden’s plan also includes a provision with major implications for the private sector.

The administration will ask the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to require businesses with 100 or more employees to prescribe vaccinations or require weekly COVID-19 testing. The rule should apply to more than 80 million Americans.