By Jaewon Kang and Sharon Terlep
Federal and state officials are tapping regional and
supermarket-based pharmacies to help speed up administration of
Covid-19 vaccines amid a slower-than-planned rollout.
Rite Aid Corp., Kroger Co., Stop & Shop Supermarket LLC and
other retailers are being asked to step in and provide inoculations
to front-line workers and other vulnerable people. While the
timeline is weeks earlier than planned, companies say they hope to
test and troubleshoot protocols before distributing vaccines to the
masses.
"We're getting calls just because of the need," said Colleen
Lindholz, president of Kroger's health-care business. Officials
from South Carolina and Georgia reached out to Kroger this week,
and the company has been providing shots to health-care
professionals in its stores and sending staff to long-term
facilities in Alaska, West Virginia, Texas and Arkansas.
The executives of Kroger and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., two
of the biggest retailers involved in the vaccine effort, expressed
frustration over what they said was a slower-than-necessary rollout
because of holdups at the state and federal levels.
Kroger is also exploring ways to hold large events in community
centers and stadiums that would allow it to vaccinate 600 to 800
people at a time, Ms. Lindholz said. She added that the nation's
biggest grocer could immunize a tremendous number of people if it
had more access to inoculations.
More than 17 million doses of vaccines from Moderna Inc. and the
Pfizer Inc.- BioNTech SE partnership have been shipped, and roughly
5.3 million had been administered as of Thursday morning, according
to federal figures.
Part of the shortfall is because of a lag in reporting data. But
the rollout also is encountering speed bumps, from confusion at the
state level around how doses get distributed to hesitancy on the
part of people who qualify for the vaccine in this first round.
The U.S. is in the first stage of a three-phase vaccine
administration plan that starts with health-care workers and
residents of long-term care facilities. CVS Health Corp. and
Walgreens, the nation's largest drugstore chains, are leading the
efforts to vaccinate staff and residents at roughly 50,000
long-term-care facilities.
On Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said
a federal partnership with 19 pharmacy chains and associations to
administer the vaccine at 40,000 sites would start this week,
earlier than planned. States will determine when those vaccinations
will begin. Mr. Azar blamed the holiday season for the slow pace of
vaccinations, and said reporting delays cause the total number of
vaccinations to trail the total number of distributed doses by a
wide margin.
Many retailers were expected to start immunizing people during
the next phase and had been preparing by hiring pharmacists and
pharmacy technicians, securing medical gear and adding scheduling
services. Offering vaccinations has been a way for retailers to
bring in more customers.
But health officials are seeking their help earlier than planned
as the initial rollout lags behind the federal government's goal of
vaccinating 20 million people by the end of 2020.
Walgreens Chief Executive Stefano Pessina said the chain, with
9,000 U.S. pharmacies, has the capability to do much more than it
currently is.
"But we are just an agent for the states," Mr. Pessina said in
an interview. "We are vaccinating at a pace that is a fraction of
the pace that we could be doing. We could do much more as a
pharmacy chain if we had a certain degree of freedom."
Kroger's Ms. Lindholz also said the grocer is only getting a
small part of what it has the ability to handle. The
Cincinnati-based company has given about 4,500 doses of Covid-19
vaccinations. On average, Kroger provides roughly 200,000 doses of
the flu vaccine each week during flu season.
Inconsistency among state guidelines is causing a slowdown, she
said, adding that she hopes the federal and state governments can
come together to create a more uniform plan.
"There's ample supply," Ms. Lindholz said.
Charlie Hartig, CEO at Hartig Drug Stores, said the retailer has
given 100 doses to health-care workers and caregivers since last
week in three of its roughly 20 stores. While the retailer could be
offering more, it wants to follow guidelines strictly, Mr. Hartig
said.
"It's been a hurry-up-and-wait game," he said.
For other pharmacies, state-level requests began pouring in this
week. Stop & Shop, owned by Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize NV, is
communicating with Massachusetts and other states to learn how its
pharmacies can help sooner, said Katie Thornell, director of
pharmacy operations at Stop & Shop. She said she sees
opportunities in vaccinating adults ages 75 and up given the
grocer's network of pharmacy locations in the Northeast, adding
that the administration will likely happen within stores.
Tops Markets LLC had a call with New York state officials on
Monday about potentially helping vaccinate nursing-home residents
and health-care workers, said Matthew Hamed, the company's director
of pharmacy.
The retailer is double-checking its vaccine procedures and
submitting plans to show how many people it can inoculate and which
locations are ready.
Rite Aid, the third-largest U.S. pharmacy chain, said a mounting
number of states and other jurisdictions are reaching out to ask
for help with administration. The chain has recently given shots to
health-care workers in New Jersey, Philadelphia, New York City and
Delaware.
Other pharmacies are thinking of ways to speed up the timeline
and immunize more people. Vic Vercammen, chief pandemic officer at
Giant Eagle Inc., said the retailer is discussing with various
states how to repurpose underused spaces such as county fairgrounds
and courthouses to set up clinics. Giant Eagle has provided
vaccinations in nursing homes and long-term care facilities in West
Virginia and is working with Ohio officials to expand immunization
efforts.
"We're not newly deputized, but as various authorities look at
the population and see where qualified immunizers are, we're well
positioned to help where we can," he said.
--Jared S. Hopkins contributed to this article.
Write to Jaewon Kang at jaewon.kang@wsj.com and Sharon Terlep at
sharon.terlep@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 08, 2021 07:14 ET (12:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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