Paula Lugones
02/03/2021 8:52 AM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 02/03/2021 8:52 AM
Joe Biden's government seeks to accelerate vaccination against the coronavirus as much as possible and seeks to allow Americans to be immunized near their homes: it announced that it will send one million doses of vaccines to 6,500 pharmacies throughout the United States next week, the beginning of a federal program that will be extended to
40,000 pharmacies and some supermarkets such
as Walmart or Safeway, among others.
As announced Tuesday by Jeffrey Zients, the coordinator of the White House Covid 19 team, the launch will be on February 11 and will mark the beginning of
a new stage in the mass vaccination campaign
, which until now has focused on centers. from health care and mass sites to smaller, local venues that will play a crucial role in vaccinating the general public.
The idea is that the vaccine is well within reach.
Dozens of national and regional chains participate in the program, although not all in the first phase of distribution.
Among them are CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Rite Aid, Kroger, Publix, Meijer, Costco, Jewel-Osco and Safeway.
While some states in recent weeks have begun using a limited number of retail pharmacies to deliver some of their vaccine doses, the federal program that launches next week will not reduce the doses allocated to states, and over time, it will greatly expand the number of sites where eligible individuals can receive vaccinations.
The Armory, a closed sports center, in New York, became a vaccination center against the coronavirus.
Photo: AP
Still, the launch of the program will be slow at first and many pharmacies will have no vaccines or will have a very limited supply, Zients said.
Patients should check the pharmacy websites
to see if there is availability, according to the group they belong to.
Zients said the federal government would assign vaccines to pharmacies based on the population of each state and jurisdiction, as it has been doing with vaccines distributed through other channels.
Reach the most difficult areas
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is also working with states to choose pharmacies in areas that are “harder to reach” and close to people most at risk for Covid-19. serious, said Zients.
The CVS pharmacy chain, one of the main in the United States, will join the mass vaccination campaign from February 11.
Photo: AP
He added that the agency would oversee the program to make sure pharmacies distribute the dose
efficiently and fairly.
Pharmacy chain CVS said it would begin offering vaccines on February 11 in 11 states under the federal retail pharmacy program.
Walgreens said it would do the same on February 12 in 15 states and major metropolitan areas.
Both chains had already been giving vaccines in long-term care centers and retail pharmacies in some states.
Walmart said last week it has more than 5,000 supermarkets ready to supply vaccines.
The United States has been vaccinating at a rate of 1.3 million people per day
, the country with the highest daily immunization rate in the world, according to Bloomberg.
The vaccines used are those of Pfizer and Moderna BioNtech, the only ones that have been authorized for now, although there are others that await approval.
In some states they have already immunized all health personnel and have already passed to people over 65 years of age.
Washington, correspondent
Look also
America in the hands of the elderly: a problem or an advantage?
Covid vaccination campaign in the United States lays bare the racial gap
