Walgreens Predicts Coronavirus Vaccine For Public By March

ROMEOVILLE, IL — As frontline health care workers across the nation receive the first doses of the coronavirus vaccine this week, Americans will have to wait a bit longer for their opportunity. Dr. Kevin Ban, chief medical officer of Deerfield-based Walgreens, believes the vaccine will be available to the public in the early spring, possibly March.

"We feel really comfortable that we're positioned to be able to start in long-term care facilities and then scale that out across the country," Ban said during a virtual program Thursday hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. "We think we have [between] eight to 12 weeks of work in front of us just to get through 1A [frontline workers] and 1B [long-term care residents and staff]. I know that Dr. [Anthony] Fauci has come on record to say some time in March — probably early April — that's when we're able to go to phase 2,which is the general population."

On Friday, Walgreens announced it has begun administering Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine to approximately 3 million residents and staff in 35,000 long-term care facilities as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Program. In a press release, the company said pharmacists are providing the vaccinations at nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Ohio and Connecticut.

Walgreens said it will provide coronavirus vaccinations in approximately 800 long-term care facilities across 12 states the week of Dec. 21, including many in rural and urban medically underserved areas.

Ban said Thursday that over the last 15 years, Walgreens has been building out its vaccine program. He believes the lessons learned through making vaccines like the flu shot available at its nearly 10,000 retail stores (including Duane Reade) in that time will help ensure a smooth rollout of the coronavirus vaccine.

"Over the course of the flu season during this pandemic, we've been very careful to make sure that we build processes such that not only the people that are getting the vaccine are safe, but so are our team members," Ban said. "So, we do the basic things [like] temperature check, symptom checks. It's important that not only the patient, but our pharmacists also wear shields."

Ban described the 2009 H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic as a dry run for Walgreens on how to act during a pandemic.

Last week, Walgreens announced it will be hiring around 25,000 people across the United States, including 9,000 pharmacists and other health care workers, to administer the vaccine.

"We feel really confident about our staffing. Over the course of the last five years, we've performed over 150,000 flu clinics that are very similar to the ones we're starting in these long-term care facilities," Ban said. "We do feel confident that we're staffed appropriately."

Walgreens in Romeoville is located at:

• Store 1: 498 N. Weber Road
• Store 2: 347 N. Independence Boulevard
• Store 3: 680 S. Weber Road