Americans can get booster shots at more than 80,000 places across the country, including 40,000 local pharmacies, Jeff Zients, White House coronavirus task force coordinator, said at a briefing Friday.
"There are people who will be getting booster shots as early as this afternoon," Zients said.
Colorado has nine mobile vaccination clinics ready to administer boosters to people where they are, Zients said, and several states are ready to activate larger vaccination centers to get shots in arms "as quickly as possible," with full reimbursement from the federal government.
Pharmacies and grocers are hiring more employees to ramp up capacity for administering boosters, Zients said. CVS is hiring 25,000 workers, and Hy-Vee is hiring more than 2,000 technicians, he said. Kroger is ramping up capacity to 1 million booster shots per week, Zients said.
Zients reminded Americans that booster shots are free regardless of immigration or health insurance status, and no ID is required.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, urged Americans to wait the full six months before getting a booster shot. It's "natural" for people to be feeling anxious to get their booster, he said, but there are medical reasons to wait.
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