Walgreens Pharmacies Will Have 45,000 Trained COVID-19 Immunizers in the Next 90 Days

Pharmacy Times^® interviewed Rina Shah, PharmD, group vice president of pharmacy operations and services at Walgreens, on how the hours of operation of Walgreens pharmacies involved in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccinations have been impacted by their vaccination efforts.

Alana Hippensteele: Have the hours of operation of Walgreens pharmacies involved in these COVID-19 vaccinations been affected during this initial wave of vaccinations?

Rina Shah: So operating hours aren't impacted, but we continue to evaluate operating hours as time goes on, we continue to hire for mass availability. When we think of what we're helping to support, it's not only vaccinations, but it's testing services, it's making sure patients are adherent to therapy. We have tons of activity happening because we're an essential business to ensure that our patients and our communities are supported.

What we have been doing is training up our team members so that they can be trained to administer [COVID-19] vaccinations. And so right now, we have around 30,000 team members—pharmacists and technicians—that are trained to administer vaccinations. We will be at around 45,000 immunizers in the next 90 days. And so, we're working through that diligently with the team so that we can get to having as many immunizers as possible.