Kroger will be first federal pharmacy partner in Indiana for COVID-19 vaccine

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Hoosiers will soon have another option when choosing where to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Tuesday, the Biden administration announced one million doses will be delivered to pharmacies across the country by late next week.

The program will eventually deliver doses to 40,000 drugstores across the country, but because of a lag in the current supply of vaccine only some partners are going live in each state.

Kroger spokesperson Eric Halvorson said by next Thursday, every county in the state with a store will have access to the vaccine.

“Our situation doesn’t really change except for the fact that we will be working with the federal government in this case.”

That is where things can be confusing.

Gov. Holcomb already announced last week that Kroger, Meijer and Walmart would all be able to administer the vaccine, and some sites have started that process.

While it’s true all three chains are state partners, Meijer is not a federal partner in Indiana. Neither are CVS or Walgreens, at least in the initial rollout.

White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said that could change as vaccine production ramps up.

“But I wanted to set expectations appropriately. Due to the current supply constraints, this will be limited when it begins next week. In this first phase of the program, supply will be at only about 6,500 stores nationwide before expanding,” Zients explained.

He also announced the federal government will increase the amount of doses it can ship from 10 million to 10.5 million.

Here in Indiana, Halvorson said with more locations opening, there may be fewer doses to work with.

He expects Kroger to receive 100 doses, per store, per week.