NEW YORK / LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Walmart Inc. is preparing to offer COVID-19 vaccines in seven more states, as well as in Chicago and Puerto Rico this week and next, a company spokeswoman told Reuters, expanding -be beyond the two states where their pharmacists offer inoculations.
The step for the world’s largest retailer comes as U.S. President Joe Biden rushes to accelerate a frustrating slow-moving vaccination campaign that has blocked about half of the 38 million shots in the freezers.
This week and next, Walmart will begin providing inoculations to Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, South Carolina and Texas, as well as Chicago and Puerto Rico, the spokeswoman said. Photos will only be available for specific populations decided by each state and only in a handful of stores in each state.
Walmart is already vaccinating health care workers in New Mexico and its home state, Arkansas.
Alabama health chief Scott Harris said Thursday that the state would partner with Walmart to provide COVID-19 vaccines. Walmart confirmed the deal, which belongs to a federal association that Biden would launch in early February.
Harris said another deal will come soon, with a major pharmacy chain.
Walgreens, CVS, Kroger, and Rite Aid have also stepped up to vaccinate Americans in what is the largest and most complex vaccination effort in U.S. history. These traits are needed to help stop the virus, which has killed more than 400,000 people and infected more than 24 million people in the United States.
The Trump administration approved vaccine planning in states, which were asked to submit their own plans, a move that left many pharmacies and supermarket-based pharmacies in the chains.
“We need to be flexible as we try to operate state by state, but we believe it’s absolutely right to do that, to lean on that and help us figure it out,” Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart, told Consumer Electronics Show last week. “That’s the approach we’re taking.”
He said Walmart “makes sure we can handle the Pfizer vaccine, the Modern vaccine and do it properly and safely.”
A spokesman for the Texas State Department of Health Services said many of Walmart’s pharmacies have registered as vaccine providers in the state, but that “only a handful” have received the doses so far. due to limited supply. “Once there is a wider supply and we can start allocating regularly to more pharmacies, they will be included,” the spokesman said.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson told Reuters that she plans to “continue and expand” her existing partnership with Walmart, and that as additional doses of vaccine become available, Walmart has agreed to be a key part of its distribution plan.
Report by Melissa Fares in New York and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; edited by Jason Neely and Steve Orlofsky