By Reuters staff
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The United States plans to begin distributing COVID-19 vaccines through pharmacies across the country earlier this week, as states struggle to use the supplies they were allocated, top health officials said Wednesday. said.
The partnership with 19 pharmacy chains will eventually allow the Operation Warp Speed vaccination program to deliver to as many as 40,000 locations across the country, Warp Speed officials said at a news conference on Wednesday.
Pharmacies could provide a more efficient platform to distribute the vaccines than hospitals, they said.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC), on Tuesday morning, more than 70 percent of the more than 17 million doses of vaccine delivered across the country since December were put in freezers.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar also told the news conference that states should not allow recommendations to prioritize certain groups such as health workers to slow down the rate of vaccinations.
He said states should not leave the vaccines in freezers for too long for distribution to health workers, and urged governors to promote CDC recommendations if it could speed up vaccination.
“These are merely recommendations, and they should never stand in the way of getting shots in the arms,” Azar said.
If states struggle to distribute the vaccine, “you want to be open to people 70 and older or 65 and older anyway,” he said.