Walgreens to begin vaccinating nursing home residents today
Walgreens has announced plans to vaccinate 3,000,000 residents and staff members in nursing homes and long-term care facilities across the country.
The pharmacy chain said it planned to begin administering the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine Friday at assisted living facilities in Ohio and Connecticut. Eventually, the operation will expand to 800 facilities next week before moving to a nationwide effort to serve 35,000 nursing homes.
RELATED: Nursing homes expecting COVID-19 vaccine delivery through CVS and Walgreens
Walgreens joins competitor CVS in the vaccination efforts for older people as doses of the vaccine continue to be delivered across the United States.
According to a CVS spokesperson, CVS pharmacists will be visiting the facilities to administer the vaccine and it will consist of three visits, which will be three weeks apart for the Pfizer vaccine. For the Moderna vaccine, vaccinations will be done four weeks apart. More than 40,000 facilities have signed up to have CVS Pharmacy as its provider.
Plans revealed by two of the largest pharmacies in the U.S. emerge as the White House's top science adviser in the vaccine effort estimated 100 million seniors should get inoculated by March.
Moncef Slaoui told CNBC that people who are 65 years old and older and live independently should also set up February vaccine appointments with either Walgreens or CVS.
