Albertsons partners with CDC to support kids’ COVID-19 vaccinations

Albertsons Cos. is joining the effort to vaccinate children ages 5-11 against COVID-19.

In partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the company is pledging to support the nationwide effort to vaccinate children for COVID-19 through school clinics, following the FDA recommendation of Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children ages 5 to 11-years-old.

As one of the CDC’s largest retail partners in this effort, Albertsons’ 1,730 pharmacies will be directing their vaccine supply and pharmacy staff to thousands of school districts to ensure school clinics are ready to administer pediatric doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to the 28 million children who are now eligible.

The CDC calls COVID-19 vaccination one of the most efficient tools to help prevent severe illness, hospitalization, and death and recommends all eligible Americans receive the vaccine, including the newly eligible 5-to-11-year-old age group.

Vaccine appointments for 5 to 11-year-olds will also be available at select Albertsons pharmacies in coming weeks. As with adults and adolescents who have been immunized with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, children will need to receive two doses, three weeks apart, to be fully vaccinated.

A number of other major retail chains are also preparing to administer COVID-19 vaccines to children ages 5 to 11, albeit in-store. Walmart and Sam’s Club will administer the Pfizer vaccine to eligible children ages 5 to 11 in more than 5,100 pharmacies nationwide starting later this week as supply allows. Parents and guardians can use Walmart’s digital appointment scheduler to find an available Pfizer vaccine. 

Meanwhile, Walgreens and Rite Aid will both begin administering Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to children ages 5 to 11 in thousands of stores nationwide beginning Saturday, Nov. 6. Appointments will be available beginning Saturday and can be made online, through the Walgreens app or Rite Aid scheduling tool, or phone.

And Midwest discount chain Meijer will begin administering the first in the Pfizer two-dose series to the latest eligibility group on Nov. 9, by appointment only to start.

[Read more: Retailers to begin offering COVID-19 vaccinations for children]

“We are committed to help provide children and their families quick, convenient and equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine and right now, that means working with the federal government to administer school-based vaccination sites across the country,” Omer Gajial, Albertsons Cos. senior VP of pharmacy and health. “We know it is particularly important to offer vaccines in a setting that kids and their parents know and trust, and we’re proud to play a role in helping protect children against COVID-19 by supporting school-based vaccinations.”

To date, Albertsons says its pharmacists have administered more than 8.2 million COVID-19 vaccines through the company’s 1,730 pharmacies nationwide including those in Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen, and Carrs stores.

Albertsons Cos. operates stores across 34 states and the District of Columbia with more than 20 banners including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen, Carrs, Kings Food Markets, and Balducci's Food Lovers Market.