Walmart locations in Bartlett, Collierville and Cordova are among the 11 sites in Shelby County that will soon offer COVID-19 vaccinations.
The Tennessee Department of Health announced the Walmart partnership last week in an effort to expand vaccination access to rural and underserved areas.
The participating Walmart locations in Shelby County are eleven such sites out of 100 across the state.
“Over the summer of 2020, planning really began to pick up,” said Lisa Smith, senior director of Health & Wellness. “We had our first calls with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Health and Human Services (HHS). We pulled together multidisciplinary teams from all over our organizations. We knew it would take everyone from store operations and clinical support to data and analytics to think about the best ways to tackle this large-scale vaccine rollout.”
As a result,” she continued, “right now we have over 5,000 Walmart store and Sam’s Club locations that are operationally and clinically ready to administer vaccines in our facilities and in communities through vaccination events.
Smith added that Walmart is in a “number of communities where it’s difficult to access health care.”
Walmart sites in Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Texas and Washington D.C. have already begun to administer the vaccines.
The Shelby County vaccination sites were scheduled to receive vaccine shipments last week. Each site will set its operation hours.
“As we look to a future when supply can meet demand and more people are eligible to receive the vaccine, we plan to offer the vaccine seven days a week at our pharmacies, through planned in-store vaccination clinics and through large community events,” said Dr. Cheryl Pegus, executive vice president, Health & Wellness.
Local Walmarts participating include:
Bartlett:8480 Highway 646520 Memphis-Arlington Road8400 Highway 64
Collierville:560 West Poplar Ave.
Cordova:577 N. Germantown Parkway
Memphis:3950 Austin Peay Hwy.6990 East Shelby Dr.5255 Elvis Presley Blvd.2856 Hickory Hill Road 6727 Raleigh Lagrange Road 7525 Winchester Road
