Walgreens (Deerfield, Ill.) expects to get its first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine next week and to begin giving shots to nursing home residents and staff, reports CNBC. Walgreens and CVS Health (Woonsocket, R.I.) are working with the federal government to vaccinate nursing home staff and residents, which have been hit hard by the pandemic.
“It’s going to also help us from an education perspective because there are a lot saying that they may not get the vaccine,” said Rick Gates, Senior VP of Pharmacy and Healthcare, Walgreens. “The more we have from a practical application perspective, then we can educate more broadly on the safety protocols that we’re seeing with the vaccines as well as we expand into larger populations.”
Walgreens is working with FedEx for delivery of vaccine shipments and has designated some of its stores as hubs that will store the vaccine in special freezers. The retailer has 27,000 pharmacists trained to administer vaccines and reportedly plans to hire between 8000 and 9000 pharmacy techs to support this and COVID-19 testing efforts.