Federal government to ship Covid vaccines to retail pharmacies next week

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WASHINGTON – The United States will begin shipping doses of the Covid-19 vaccine directly to retail pharmacies next week, as the Biden administration continues to expand how and where Americans can get vaccinated.

The initial shipment of 1 million doses will go to 6,500 stores from Feb.11, said Jeffrey Zients, the Biden administration’s Covid-19 coordinator.

The Trump administration has left it up to states to design their own distribution plans, and some have chosen to use retail pharmacies in their states to help administer the vaccine to certain groups, such as healthcare workers.

Pharmacies that receive the vaccine directly from the federal government will always need to follow their state’s guidelines to determine which populations should receive the injections. Americans should check their local pharmacy’s website to make an appointment if they belong to any of their state’s priority groups, he said.

The first pharmacies to receive the vaccine from the federal government will be those best positioned to reach people at high risk for serious illness and “socially vulnerable” populations, Zients said.

Eventually, 40,000 pharmacies across the country will receive shipments of the vaccine, but Zients did not say when he expected it to happen. So far, state hospitals and health departments administer the vast majority of vaccine doses.

“The initial phase of activating local pharmacies will get more shots,” Zients said. “This will ensure that pharmacies have the infrastructure and experience to grow when the supply of vaccines increases in the coming months.”

In addition to the one million doses the administration plans to ship to retail pharmacies, it also continues to plan to ship 10.5 million doses per week for the next three weeks to state governments. The Biden administration has increased the number of doses sent to states by 20% since taking over the vaccine distribution program on Jan.20.

President Joe Biden has pledged to give at least 100 million shots in his first 100 days in office and has said he hopes that number could grow to 150 million. So far, 32 million doses have been administered since the first vaccine was approved on December 11.

Zients said inclement weather across much of the northeastern United States has not slowed vaccine shipments by the federal government, although some states have had to shut down administration sites.