(Reuters) – Kroger Co unit Kroger Health said on Tuesday it is partnering with federal and state governments to provide the COVID-19 vaccine across its 2,200 pharmacies and 220 clinics once they become more widely available.
The healthcare division of U.S. grocer Kroger said it would begin to administer the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE to health care workers in Anchorage and Juneau this week in partnership with the state of Alaska.
Kroger’s rival Walmart Inc said earlier this month it was entering into agreements with U.S. states to administer COVID-19 vaccines at its pharmacies.
Kroger Health, which has facilitated more than 250,000 COVID-19 tests since April, also said it is hiring nearly 1,000 health care workers, including pharmacy technicians, to support operations and the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc and CVS Health Corp, which run the nation’s largest pharmacy chains, said last week they had begun administering Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.
(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
