CVS is now offering walk-in COVID-19 vaccine appointments at hundreds of Massachusetts locations, a spokesman said Wednesday.
“CVS Health announced today that it is now accepting walk-in COVID-19 appointments at CVS Pharmacy locations across the country, including 389 locations in MA, with no appointment necessary,” said company spokesman Matt Blanchette via email. “Same-day scheduling, including appointments as soon as one hour from time of scheduling, is also available at CVS.com.”
Blanchette said the company’s vaccination drive remains in high gear from coast to coast.
“As of May 5, CVS Health is now vaccinating in more than 8,300 stores across 49 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., and has surpassed 17 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered through its participation in the Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care Program and Federal Retail Pharmacy Program,” Blanchette wrote. “Second dose compliance is more than 90 percent at CVS Health locations.”
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Karen S. Lynch, CVS Health’s president and CEO, lauded the vaccine drive in a statement.
“We continue to orchestrate an all-out effort to vaccinate the nation against COVID-19,” Lynch said. “Thanks to the dedication and effort of our colleagues, I am proud to say we helped achieve the President’s accelerated 100-day goal of 200 million vaccines and have administered over 17 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to date. Our customers continue to give us high satisfaction scores based on their interactions with colleagues and our customer-centric digital approach for scheduling appointments.”
Walmart and Sam’s Club are on a similar wavelength, according to a Tuesday statement from Walmart that said COVID-19 vaccines “are now available to customers and associates in all of their more than 5,100 pharmacy locations nationwide, across 49 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.,” and that the shots are being administered “via both walk-up and pre-scheduled appointments.”
Walmart owns Sam’s Club.
“Now that supply and eligibility have expanded, it’s even more important for us to reach underserved and vulnerable populations to ensure equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine,” said Dr. Cheryl Pegus, Walmart’s executive vice president for health and wellness, in the company statement. “Widespread vaccination is the only way we will eventually end the pandemic and help our country reopen, and we don’t want anyone to get left behind as we enter this new chapter in our fight against COVID-19.”
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The move comes after Governor Charlie Baker announced Monday that Massachusetts plans to close four of the state’s seven mass vaccination sites by the end of June, with the Commonwealth and other New England states leading the nation in the rate of people who have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Moderna and Pfizer require two shots over a period of several weeks, while the J&J vaccine is a one-shot vaccination.
About 6.3 million doses of all three vaccines had been administered in Massachusetts as of Tuesday, with 2.6 million residents fully vaccinated, state officials said via Twitter.
“Now that we believe we are going to hit the 4.1 million goal we started with in the next few weeks, it’s time to adapt our vaccination effort to make sure we get to some of the harder-to-reach populations,” Baker said Monday during a State House briefing.
Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.