Demand for coronavirus vaccines exceeds supply in the federal retail pharmacy program for the United States. CNN finds that appointments fill up quickly.
Many pharmacies told CNN this week that they can receive and administer far more vaccine doses than have arrived so far. Albertsons Companies Inc., a U.S. grocery company headquartered in Boise, Idaho, uses less than 10 percent of its capacity, according to Albertsons spokesman Andrew Whelan.
“We have the capacity to administer 150,000 doses every day and can ingest about 90% more in our network,” Whelan told CNN.
Hy-Vee, a chain of supermarkets in the Midwest, told CNN that it is more advantageous to administer more vaccine doses to the public.
“The limited supply of the vaccine was our biggest challenge,” said company spokeswoman Christina Gayman. “We would like to vaccinate every person who inquires, but the supply is still limited.”
Meanwhile, Meijer Inc. since mid-January, 66,000 doses have been administered with an expected additional 30,000 this week, Frank J. Guglielmi, the company’s representative, told CNN. Most doses were administered in Michigan, where Meijer is both a state and federal vaccine partner.
“In terms of support, we just need more vaccinations,” Guglielmi said.
Walgreens, one of the first pharmacies to start administering Covid-19 vaccines in December through a separate partnership with long-term care institutions, administered more than 3 million vaccines as of Monday, with a grant of 180,000 doses per week by the federal program. , company spokeswoman Kelli Teno told CNN.
“As we expand to wider populations, the demand for vaccine continues to outweigh the supply,” Teno said. “We share the enthusiasm of the country to vaccinate people as quickly as possible, but patience is needed as the vaccination stock will continue to build in the coming weeks and months and we can vaccinate more communities.”