Some states say the federal government has given CVS and Walgreens an excess supply of COVID-19 vaccines through their partnership to vaccinate residents and staff of long-term care facilities, so the states are reallocating doses away from those facilities to vaccinate a broader population, Politico reports.
State officials told Politico that tens of thousands of vaccines designated for long-term care facilities through the partnership with CVS and Walgreens have gone unused. Meanwhile, state health officials say they are using up their weekly allocated supply of vaccines.
Utah halted new vaccine shipments to long-term care facilities this week and is redistributing 8,775 shots to local health departments and other providers, a health department spokesperson told Politico. Minnesota is redistributing 30,000 shots from long-term care facilities to teachers and childcare providers. Maine has redistributed about 3,400 shots from CVS and Walgreens to hospitals and independent pharmacies, according to Politico, and Michigan is redistributing 120,000 shots to other providers.
State officials told Politico the redistribution won't slow CVS and Walgreens' initiative to vaccinate long-term care facilities and said the CDC is helping with the reallocation.
CVS said Jan. 25 that it finished giving all first-round shots to skilled nursing facilities and will complete giving first-round doses to all long-term care facilities in the program by mid-February. Walgreens said Jan. 22 that it has administered more than 1 million vaccine doses to long-term care facilities and was on track to finish giving first doses by Jan. 25.
Spokespeople for CVS and Walgreens told Politico that in some cases, they received more vaccine doses than they needed and are working with states to figure out how to reallocate them.
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