As the Biden administration concentrates on increasing the roll out of Covid-19 vaccinations, Walmart has increased the number of locations and the number of states where it will deliver the vaccine.
As first reported by Reuters, the vaccine will now be available in many states across select locations. However, the state will decide which population groups are eligible to get the vaccine and only those groups will obtain them at Walmart pharmacies.
Recently the company had administered vaccine shots in select locations in Arkansas and New Mexico. In an email on Friday, a company spokesperson said that the vaccine is set to roll out in select locations in the following additional states: New Jersey, Louisiana, Chicago, Texas, Georgia, Maryland, Indiana and South Carolina.
According to latest data from CDC, more than 17 million doses have been administered across the nation. The new administration wishes to ramp up the roll out as cases continue to soar and spread across the nation.
Biden had said that his administration wished to vaccinate 100 million Americans in the first 100 days of his term of office. In his $1.9 trillion rescue package, the President has set aside a huge amount for the vaccine program and additional funds will be released after Congress accepts the total package.
The federal government has partnered with 19 pharmacy chains, retailers and associations across the nation. This indicates that it has partnered with over 40% of the pharmacy locations in the U.S.
In a blog post Walmart indicated that it has a lofty goal of administering up to 13 million doses per month across its pharmacies in the nation. The giant retailer has over 5000 pharmacies across the United States and Puerto Rico and can utilize all these locations to administer the Covid-19 vaccines when “supply and allocations” allow the retailer to do so.
Other major Pharma giants have also set targets. CVS has said that it could eventually administer as many as 25 million doses per month.
