Walmart, CVS, Walgreens among retailers to get vaccines under Federal Retail Pharmacy Program

Twenty rolls of toilet paper? Check. Frozen fish sticks? Check. A COVID-19 vaccine? If you qualify.

You can’t buy them in bulk, but vaccines are coming to a Walmart or Sam’s Club near you as the federal government launches a program this week that sends shots directly to pharmacies.

The Federal Retail Pharmacy Program will receive tranches of vaccines parallel to the allocations that states receive each week.

The program will begin with 1 million doses to be shared among 6,500 pharmacies across the country. The number of locations should grow to 40,000 as manufacturing ramps up.

Those doses are being shipped now, so the first shots should get into arms by Thursday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Officials said most Americans live within 5 miles of a pharmacy. Big names such as CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid are involved, but the partnership extends to community stores and regional outlets including Wegmans, ShopRite, Food Lion and Safeway.

Retail behemoth Walmart, another key player, said people in 22 participating states will be able to schedule appointments on its website.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis previewed the kickoff in Jacksonville on Tuesday. He said Walmart has a “significant footprint” in his state, so more than 100 of its stores in 34 counties will be offering the vaccine to people 65 and older as of Friday.

“Today is a great day because we’re announcing the expansion of vaccine availability in the state of Florida,” Mr. DeSantis said during a press conference inside a Walmart. “They’re spreading it pretty far and wide, and then as those doses increase from the federal government, they’ll be able to do more shots at each store without much of a problem.”

The pharmacy launch should give the COVID-19 vaccination push a feel similar to flu season.

But the caveats bedeviling Americans still apply. Supplies of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are limited, so states are restricting eligibility until allocations increase.

Right now, those eligible for vaccines typically include health care workers, certain essential workers and older people. Some states also are trying to cover people with certain medical conditions.

“Pharmacists are one of the most accessible health care providers, and so this program will definitely improve access for populations who might otherwise have trouble finding a place to get vaccinated,” said Litjen Tan, chief strategy officer at the Immunization Action Coalition. “Convenience is critical in operationalizing this program. We know from flu vaccination that if we make getting the vaccine easy, people tend to get vaccinated.”

Although convenient, the pharmacy offerings might add a layer of confusion for seniors who have a dizzying array of sign-up portals in their counties and states.

Walmart and Sam’s Club created vaccine sign-up pages on their websites. The CDC fact sheet says people eligible for a vaccine should call their local pharmacy or check the pharmacy’s website to find out whether a vaccine is available.

The White House said Tuesday that it is aware of the multiplatform confusion.

“I think that the integration of the pharmacy websites into the state websites is an important step to take,” said Jeff Zients, President Biden’s COVID-19 coordinator. “We as a federal government are going to do what we can to support the efforts for states to get better websites and also think through how we can contribute to a more coherent experience for users, so they can navigate and get appointments in an efficient way. More to come on that topic.”

Supply remains the biggest limiting factor. The number of vaccines administered in the U.S. is nearing 1.5 million per day.

Roughly 10% of Americans have received at least one dose, according to a Bloomberg News tracker, though only 3% have been fully vaccinated with two doses.

Mr. Zients said the allocation of vaccines to the states will rise next week to 11 million, a 28% increase over the 8.6 million sent three weeks ago. Those shipments are separate from the 1 million doses that will kick off the pharmacy program this week.

Also, the administration said it will ship 1 million doses directly to federally supported “community health centers” for the initial phase of a program designed to reach underserved areas. The launch Monday will include at least one health care center in each state before expanding to 250 centers in the coming weeks.

The administration said the pharmacy program must be tailored to reach the most vulnerable.

“The location of the vaccination sites is critical. The CDC is working very closely with those participating in the federal retail pharmacy program to make sure that we see a substantial number of pharmacies located in socially vulnerable areas moving forward,” said Marcella Nunez-Smith, who oversees equity for Mr. Biden’s COVID-19 team.

No one is being charged for the COVID-19 vaccine because pharmacies and other providers bill insurance companies. Public programs are available for the uninsured to get immunized.

Some pharmacies are vaccinating people already because they enrolled directly with states, which receive their weekly shipments of doses.

Florida is leaning heavily on Publix stores for its rollout. The state looked for places that didn’t have a Publix supermarket but did have a Walmart as it set up its portion of the federal pharmacy program.

Publix will expand its operations under the pharmacy program from over 300 stores to nearly 600 stores. Wholesale clubs, meanwhile, won’t ask seniors to show membership cards when they schedule a vaccine.

“You do not have to be a member of Sam’s Club to be able to get a shot at a Sam’s Club pharmacy, which we obviously very much appreciate because we want this to be as widely available as possible,” Mr. DeSantis said.

South Dakota is participating in the federal program through its Hy-Vee and Lewis Drug locations and some Cardinal Health and Walmart pharmacies. The state expects to get 2,600 doses per week out of the program.

“This does not come out of our weekly allocation, but rather on top of it,” state health department spokesman Daniel Bucheli said. “This will further help the vaccine rollout in the sense that it increases point of access for state residents, which means faster shots in arms with added convenience of locations.”

He said the main limitation remains the weekly allocation of vaccines. Although the number is increasing, it is still “not enough to proceed as quickly as we would like.”