Loblaws ready to help provinces with vaccine rollout, president says
Posted Feb 26, 2021 12:36 pm.
Last Updated Feb 26, 2021 10:40 am.
TORONTO – The country’s biggest grocery store chain says it’s ready to be part of COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
Loblaw’s company president Sarah Davis says the grocery chain – and its pharmacy retail brand Shoppers Drug Mart – is able to deliver vaccines and begin administering them the day it receives the supply.
Davis made the comments in the company’s earnings conference call. She says the company’s 1,300 drug stores across the country are within 10 minutes of most Canadians and have administered flu shots for years.
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The president believes they’re well-positioned to do the same with the COVID-19 vaccines.
Davis however says that while governments in Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan have all told the company it would be involved in the vaccine distribution, Loblaws has not been given the rollout strategy across all provinces or any specifics about timing.
Last week, Pfizer and BioNTech offered new temperature data to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that said their COVID-19 vaccine could be stored in pharmacy freezers instead of ultra-cold storage facilities.
