Despite top retail pharmacies announcing plans to conduct COVID-19 testing at their stores, only five of the 67,000 pharmacies in the U.S. are currently testing for the disease, Yahoo News reports.
Seven things to know:
- Pharmacies are struggling to open sites because of shortages of personal protective equipment and test kits, Dan Bartlett, Walmart's vice president of corporate affairs, told Yahoo News.
- A White House official told Yahoo News that the Trump administration is "currently in discussions with these private companies and others to expand the number of testing sites in a way that reduces [personal protective equipment] requirements and improves patient experience."
- A spokesperson for CVS told Yahoo News its testing site in Shrewsbury, Mass., has been testing more than 200 local first responders and healthcare workers per day, but that it has "no plans to share at this time" about other sites opening.
- Walgreens has one testing site in Chicago, but it's only available for first responders and the elderly and is not meant for the general public.
- Rite Aid has also opened a single testing site meant only for first responders and healthcare workers, Yahoo News reports.
- A Walmart spokesperson told Yahoo News it doesn't "have a lot to share" about testing sites. The company has a couple of testing sites in the Chicago area and is "assessing where next sites should be."
- Jack Mozloom, a vice president at the National Community Pharmacists Association, told Yahoo News its members "very much want to do testing for the disease" but that as far as he knows, none of its member pharmacies are testing
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