Coronavirus Disinfecting Services : Walgreens

Monday, 28 December 2020

Walgreens, CVS distribute COVID-19 vaccine to long-term care facilities

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) - A big day in the fight against COVID-19 as vaccine distributions continue.

Walgreens and CVS are now distributing the COVID-19 vaccine to long-term care facilities all across the country and here in the state.

A momentous day in California as vaccinations roll out to long term care facilities across the country and the state.

Starting Monday, CVS and Walgreens began to deliver the COVID-19 vaccines to 15,000 skilled nursing and assisted living facilities.

"So we are actually going to be in 40,000 long-term care facilities over the next 12 weeks, and 15,000 in the state of California alone. So we're looking to vaccinate 700,000 people in the next 12 weeks which is really exciting," CVS regional director Joe Fiesel said.

They expect to have people at the facilities be fully vaccinated in three to four weeks after the first shot.

CVS has a long history with vaccinations handing out flu shots for years now, but the last few weeks of vaccine rollouts have provided a little more guidance for the distribution teams so they were ready to go this morning.

"We're going to be able to administer 20 to 25 million shots a month, but we're ready for this. Again, it's proven today that our teams are out there and ready and in long-term care facilities today vaccinating," Fiesel said.

CVS cannot tell us which facilities in the Bay Area will benefit from this program due to privacy laws.

They did give us a peak as to when they might be providing vaccines to the general public.

"We're speculatively thinking that around March we're going to be able to start administering to the general public in California," Fiesel said.

Right now, CVS is administering the Pfizer vaccine, but as the new vaccines become available, those will be provided to patients as well.

When vaccines become available to the general public, you'll be able to get one at any CVS with an appointment.

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Tuesday, 15 December 2020

Walgreens, CVS ready to administer COVID-19 vaccine

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) - Over the next several days and weeks, pharmacies will start to receive the first doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

They'll play a big role in administering the shots to those in long-term care facilities.

“We feel very comfortable about our staffing model, this is not something that's new to us,” Dr. Kevin Ban said.

Touting years of experience administering vaccines to the public, Walgreens Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kevin Ban says they're ready to start vaccinating as soon as they receive their doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“The states are the ones who are responsible for allocating that vaccine so they will be giving us the vaccine as soon as they receive them and then we can then enter these long-term care facilities,” Ban said.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, both Walgreens and CVS have been working with the CDC and HHS to develop distribution plans.

They should start giving their first doses to those included in Phase 1 as early as next week and by spring, both say they'll be ready to start administering to the general public.

“We think we are able to get through the vaccination of that first phase by end of February, early March. And then we can start vaccinating the American population by late march early April,” Ban said.

In a statement, CVS says, ‘when vaccines are available for wider distribution they'll offer them at all CVS Pharmacy locations and have the capacity to administer 20-25 million shots every month.’

Both CVS and Walgreens say because they conduct thousands of seasonal flu clinics every year, they already have infrastructure and technology in place.

They'll rely heavily on the public making appointments for the vaccine either online or through their apps.

“It’s important to remember, this is not like turning on a light switch, this is a dimmer switch and as we get more product we're going to be able to make it available to people across the country,” Ban said.

The general public can't make appointments for their vaccine just yet -- both pharmacies say those functions will be available as soon as they get confirmation about who is included in Phase 2.

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