Safeway, Albertsons to soon begin administering COVID vaccine

The Biden administration plans to ship a million more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine directly to pharmacies next week, and Safeway and Albertsons will be among the recipients. Many are asking where can they get a dose and how to set up a appointment. David Green, director of pharmacy for Safeway Albertsons, joined the Gee and Ursula Show to discuss how they will play a role.

“We’re fortunate enough to start receiving federal doses next week. And what that looks like is around 100 doses initially per store — at least that’s what we’re expecting from the information that we received — so what we’re going to be able to do is in all of our pharmacies have those 100 doses. The community is going to be able to access the appointment schedule, which is online,” he said.

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“Obviously 100 doses is not a lot per store, so it’s going to go quick,” Green added. “So what we recommend really for everyone is just to continue to be patient and persistent. … We’re going to start updating it over the weekend. And then as we continue to get more vaccines allocated, we will continue to update our appointments based on our allocations.”

As host Ursula Reutin noted, they’ve heard from so many people who say their elderly loved ones are not online and that really puts them at a disadvantage in terms of getting the vaccine. What is Safeway going to do for those folks?

“We are asking everybody that does have computers or access to online resources to follow that process, even though it might be frustrating,” Green said. “If you do have a loved one that does not have access, it’s fine to go ahead and call the pharmacy What we don’t want, though, is the pharmacy to be bombarded with calls for people that have access that just want to get in line. So we’re trying to reserve that time.”

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“The other thing that we are we are doing is we are trying to reach out to our partners,” he said. “We’ve had a partnership with Nourishing Neighbors, which is a food security program. So we’re working on community outreach for underserved areas that are having access issues. So we have a clinic, for example, this Thursday at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Seattle. We’re going to be providing 400 doses. So we’re trying to get involved that way.”

Listen to the Gee and Ursula Show weekday mornings from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.