COVID-19: California Government Partners with CVS and Walgreens to Administer Vaccines

Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].

The California government has partnered with CVS and Walgreens pharmacies to administer Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines to residents and staff at long-term care facilities at no cost at the state or local level.

So, starting yesterday, Monday, December 28, CVS and Walgreens began administering the doses in homes for older adults, a task that will take approximately three to four weeks, and then vaccinate staff and residents in assisted living centers, residential care and other long-term care facilities.

There will be approximately 499 senior citizen households receiving CVS and 357 Walgreens vaccines. The vaccines will be administered by pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and nurses, the state government said in a statement.

He also noted that pharmacy technicians are participating under a recent exemption from the Pharmacy Board that requires adequate supervision under California law and specialized training.

"By leveraging the resources of CVS and Walgreens, we can effectively implement vaccines for residents and staff in our long-term care facilities, who are at increased risk of COVID-19 transmission, and do so at no cost to the state or local government," the governor said.

The program will allow counties to use the staff of these pharmacies to administer the vaccine more widely, as they will go directly to the care centers. 

Skilled nursing facilities will receive the vaccine from CVS and Walgreens staff. 

"This partnership is an opportunity to increase other vaccination efforts at the local level to prioritize our most vulnerable Californians where we are seeing the most outbreaks, hospitalizations and deaths," said Dr. Erica Pan, acting state public health officer.

It should be noted that the program coordinates on-site vaccination clinic dates directly with each facility, where pharmacy staff will visit each site several times to ensure that all residents and employees who wish to be vaccinated receive the doses.

It also orders vaccines and supplies - for example, syringes, needles, personal protective equipment - ensures cold storage of the vaccine, and provides on-site administration of the vaccine to all residents and staff.