Pharmacies at Winn-Dixie, Walmart, Fresco y Más, Sam’s Club to start vaccinations
The number of retail stores offering COVID-19 vaccines is set to significantly expand this week, as hundreds of new Publix, Walmart and Winn-Dixie stores start giving out shots as part of a federal program to ship vials directly to major pharmacies.
The Biden administration announced the launch of the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program for COVID-19 Vaccination last week. More than 20 different retail pharmacies are participating in the initial rollout of the program nationwide.
In Florida, Publix, Walmart and Southeastern Grocers — the parent company of Winn-Dixie, Fresco y Más and Harveys grocery stores — are the participating retailers for now.
On Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis said 119 Walmart and Sam’s Club locations in 34 counties across the state will get a total of about 25,000 doses beginning this week. The chains will begin administering doses Friday. Locations in Miami-Dade and Broward county locations are included.
“They have a great plan. They’re spreading it pretty far and wide,” DeSantis said at a Jacksonville Walmart, adding that the doses will be going to more than 30% of Walmart and Sam’s Clubs stores in the state.
Meanwhile, Publix’s program will nearly double its reach, growing to 593 stores across 41 counties, but still no sites in Miami-Dade or Broward counties.
“With the addition of doses provided by the federal government, we are able to offer more Florida residents the opportunity to be vaccinated,” Publix CEO Todd Jones said in a statement.
Publix did not specify the number of doses it would be administering.
DeSantis’ office later put out a press release saying 43 Winn-Dixie locations would have vaccines. The company had previously said it was getting 8,100 doses to start providing in Florida this week.
Some of these retail locations will be in counties that have not previously had Publix locations offering COVID-19 vaccines to residents under the state’s vaccination program, DeSantis said. That includes counties like Duval, Broward, Orange, Hillsborough and Miami-Dade.
DeSantis said the state asked the participating retailers to consider locations that did not already have a Publix retail pharmacy offering vaccines so the state could expand access to more communities.
The Publix locations already in use before this expansion are in ZIP codes that are home to some 5.9 million Floridians. Those areas are much whiter than the state overall. About 71% of residents there are white non-Hispanic people, compared to 54% of all Floridians or 55% of those in ZIP codes with any licensed Publix pharmacy.
A spokeswoman with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the federal government worked with states to select the initial pharmacy partners to start the program in their communities, saying that decisions were based on things like the number of stores and the ability to reach populations most at risk from severe illness from the coronavirus. She said that, eventually, the pharmacy partners will offer vaccines in every state in which they have pharmacy locations.
All of the pharmacy retailers will only book vaccine appointments online. Publix said it will open its next block of available appointments Wednesday at 7 a.m. More will become available again on Friday and Monday at 7 a.m.
Booking websites
▪ Walmart: walmart.com/COVIDvaccine
▪ Sam’s Club: samsclub.com/covid
▪ Publix: publix.com/covidvaccine
▪ Winn-Dixie: www.winndixie.com/pharmacy/covid-vaccine
▪ Fresco y Más: www.frescoymas.com/pharmacy/covid-vaccine
▪ Harveys Supermarket: www.harveyssupermarkets.com/pharmacy/covid-vaccine
The number of doses being provided to the retailers is in addition to the state’s allotment of vaccine doses, DeSantis noted Tuesday. He said the state is getting about 325,000 vaccine doses this week, not including the doses coming through the federal retail pharmacy program. He did not say exactly how many doses were coming through the federal retail pharmacy program.
Southeastern Grocers, which also operates chains Harveys Supermarket and Fresco y Más, says it chose its most high-trafficked pharmacies as its initial sites.
“While future vaccine allocation and availability continues to be a fluid situation, our pharmacies will continue to collaborate with CDC to expand administration to more pharmacy locations in more communities to further safeguard the health and well-being of our communities, as soon as they become available,” said company spokeswoman Kaley Shaffer.
Publix was an early partner with the state in its vaccine program. DeSantis said he used Publix stores, at first, to reach regions that didn’t have robust healthcare systems. In recent weeks the program started to include more populous counties.
As of last week, the Lakeland-based chain was administering vaccines in 325 stores across 23 counties.
This story was originally published February 9, 2021 at 4:26 PM.