CVS stores across Washington to offer walk-in COVID-19 vaccine appointments

More than 40 CVS stores across Washington will start offering walk-in COVID-19 appointments, the company announced Wednesday.

The move comes as officials continue to urge people to get vaccinated and take steps to make it easier for people to get the shots.

Adults in Washington will now be able to go to the CVS locations without an appointment or they can also go online and schedule same-day appointments, the company said.

“We continue to orchestrate an all-out effort to vaccinate the nation against COVID-19,” CVS Health President and CEO Karen S. Lynch said in a news release.

“Thanks to the dedication and effort of our colleagues, I am proud to say we helped achieve the President’s accelerated 100-day goal of 200 million vaccines and have administered over 17 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to date. Our customers continue to give us high satisfaction scores based on their interactions with colleagues and our customer-centric digital approach for scheduling appointments.”

The news comes a day after Safeway and Albertsons pharmacies announced people would no longer need appointments to get the vaccine at locations across Washington. Several clinics in Seattle and King County — including those in West Seattle, Rainier Beach and the Lumen Field Event Center — are also not mandating appointments ahead of time.

The transition to allowing walk-ins is an attempt to make it even easier for people across the state to get the vaccines without having to navigate an online system or schedule a time that works in advance. 

“Seattle is making it easier than ever to quickly and easily get vaccinated. As of today, nearly 70 percent of eligible Seattleites have begun their vaccination progress. This is an incredible milestone, and if we continue this effort, we’ll reach a level of community protection where so many of us – particularly our most vulnerable – will be protected from the most serious effects of this virus,” Mayor Jenny Durkan said in a statement earlier this week.

“We’ve reached a turning point in our vaccination efforts: Now anyone who wants a vaccination in Seattle and King County can get one. If you have already been vaccinated, be a good neighbor and help your friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers get vaccinated. It’s up to all of us to defeat this pandemic.”

Officials have been continuing to urge people to get vaccinated as soon as they can, calling the vaccines a key tool the state has to stopping the spread of the virus and allowing people to get back to more activities. According to the most recent data, about 44% of people across the state have received at least one vaccine dose and about 31% are fully vaccinated. 

Until more people are vaccinated, it's important to continue taking precautions including wearing masks, social distancing and avoiding large gatherings, officials said. 

The state over the past several weeks had been seeing an increase in cases and hospitalizations. In recent days, cases have started to flatten, but officials are still unsure what the trajectory of the pandemic will look like in the weeks to come.