Target partners with CVS to offer COVID-19 vaccines at more than 600 US stores

CDC director summarizes new guidance for fully vaccinated Americans

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky shared the agency's new guidance for fully-vaccinated Americans, which says they can gather with other vaccinated people indoors without wearing a mask, but should still cover their face in public.

MINNEAPOLIS - More than 600 CVS locations inside Target stores nationwide will begin offering COVID-19 vaccines to those eligible, the company said.

Target said vaccine appoints will be available to customers and employees by appointment on CVS.com. Eligibility is based on state and federal guidelines.

The Minneapolis-based retail giant already supports CVS-administered vaccinations for the flu, shingles and penumonia each year. Target said it will make fitting rooms available to CVS at select stores for COVID-19 vaccine appointments.

Target, one of the nation’s largest retailers, is also compensating its employees up to four hours of hourly pay when they get a COVID-19 vaccine. The company announced that initiative in February, adding it also would provide U.S. team members with free Lyft rides to and from their vaccine appointments if needed.

FILE - A Target store in Vadnais Heights, Minnesota, is pictured in an undated file image. (Photo by: Michael Siluk/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

CVS Pharmacy, which has locations inside more than 1,600 Target stores nationwide, is part of the federal government’s retail pharmacy program created to help quickly distribute vaccines to the American public.

A total of 21 national pharmacy chains and independent pharmacy networks have been enlisted to help distribute the three approved vaccines, including other major retailers like Walgreens, Rite Aid, Kroger, Walmart, Publix, Meijer, and Costco.

To date, COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use in the U.S.

U.S. health officials shared this week that more than 60 million Americans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and closed to 32 million are fully vaccinated.

With the recent approval of J&J’s one-dose vaccine and increased manufacturing efforts, President Joe Biden has said the country now has enough doses of the three approved vaccines to cover all U.S. adults by the middle of May.

Biden also announced Wednesday that the government is buying an additional 100 million doses of the J&J vaccine. The drugmaker is already obligated to supply 100 million doses to the federal government by the end of June. The additional vaccine would be delivered in the months following, according to the Associated Press.

The surplus would ensure supply to cover young adults and children, pending the result of safety and efficacy trials. They could also be used as potential "boosters" to further protect against emerging coronavirus variants, or be shared with allies overseas once Americans are protected.

Last week it was announced that drugmaker Merck & Co. will help produce rival J&J’s coronavirus vaccine in an effort to expand supply more quickly.

Biden was set to meet Wednesday afternoon with the CEOs of Johnson & Johnson and Merck about their historic partnership.

"Two of the largest health care and pharmaceutical companies in the world — that are usually competitors — are working together on the vaccine," he said of the partnership. "This is the type of collaboration between companies we saw in World War II."

This story was reported from Cincinnati. The Associated Press contributed.