Starbucks To Assist in Washington's COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout
Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson speaks during the company's annual shareholders meeting at WAMU Theater, on March 20, 2019 in Seattle, Washington. The company reported on growth and efforts toward sustainability in agriculture and packaging. (Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Monday that the state had tapped Starbucks and other private companies to speed up the COVID-19 vaccines' distribution and achieve its new goal of distributing 45,000 doses a day.

Starbucks has picked 11 employees with expertise in operations, labor and deployment, and research and development for the said task.

The world-famous coffee chain said the workers would work full time on vaccine distribution in its home state. Starbucks added that the number of employees could change, according to an NBC News report.

Inslee said Washington's state is also preparing over 2,000 pharmacies to administer shots and set up drive-by vaccination sites.

Aside from Starbucks, Microsoft will also install a vaccine site to perform 5,000 vaccinations a day, the state governor said.

Inslee further noted that Kaiser Permanente would also help with the planning and delivery of vaccinations, and Costco will aid the delivery of vaccines by pharmacies.

Inslee said this is a unique challenge for the country and in every state "to stand up a total mobilization of our resources."

"We did that in World War II when we built the Liberty ships here in Washington state. We reached production levels that no one could imagine because we set ambitious goals," he noted.

In a press conference with Inslee, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said that Starbucks is not a healthcare company. However, he noted that they operate 33,000 stores at scale and serve 100 million customers per week, Forbes reported.

Johnson added that Starbucks has a world-class team of human-centered design engineers working under the direction of the state and healthcare providers, like Swedish, Kaiser Permanente, and others, with Microsoft and many other businesses to help support the creation of vaccination centers that can scale.

Starbucks has started discussing with the Washington state government about the partnership earlier this month. SeaMar Community Health Centers is also seen to participate. This week, Washington will begin giving vaccines to people over the age of 65.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data showed that Washington has only used 35 percent of the doses that it has received from the federal government.

U.S. Vaccination Program

According to data provided by the CDC, 12.2 million people already received the first dose of the COVID-19. Only 1.6 million have received both doses among the total population of 330.8 million Americans.

The Trump administration had promised to vaccinate 20 million Americans before the end of 2020.

President-elect Joe Biden earlier said that he would deploy the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Guard to help establish vaccine clinics across the country to meet a goal of administering 100 million shots during the first 100 days of his term.

Under the plan, Biden would also start making vaccinations available in all pharmacies across the country.

NBC News reported that Biden also aims to launch mobile vaccination clinics to reach underserved urban and rural areas.

On Friday, Biden said he would ensure that there would be vaccination centers in communities hit hardest by the pandemic, such as the Black and Latino communities.

Biden's plan would also start new ways of getting doses to those high-risk populations, such as the homeless, incarcerated, and residents of institutions.