Scaling Up to Serve Communities

On March 12, Walmart was asked to make a portion of our parking lots available for COVID-19 testing. We quickly learned there weren’t enough government medical personnel or PPE available to launch many sites. So, we, together with other retailers, testing lab partners plus the federal, state and local government started problem solving. As we worked through the challenges, we received incredible support from our pharmacists and pharmacy teams, who volunteered by the hundreds within hours to learn a new process, put on PPE and administer tests. We had 700 volunteers within 48 hours. Now, we are supporting 20 sites in 11 states and nearly 13,000 people have been tested to date. We realize that number is lower than we’d all like.  

We now seem to be entering a new phase of this process, which we expect to enable us to ramp up further thanks to several advancements. New nasal swab and saliva tests are emerging and can test for the virus, while requiring less PPE and staff. And the addition of online registration has helped us to make the process easier and faster.  

Looking ahead, we are in a position to open approximately 25 more sites this week and believe we can operate more than 100 sites by the end of May, assuming there is adequate lab capacity. We’ve added mobile testing capability, enabling us to reach 3 to 4 different site locations per week with each mobile unit (we have current plans to stand up 5 different mobile units). 100 sites should enable 20,000 people to be tested per week. We will prioritize underserved communities.  

We believe, collectively, we are working towards a third stage, beyond what I just described for May. Imagine going online, scheduling a test through our lab partners, pulling up to your local Walmart at your scheduled time, parking in your assigned spot and having our pharmacist greet you, you take a saliva or nasal swab while you remain in the car, and the test is sent to the lab for processing. Or, for blood-based (serology) tests, perhaps you could even have your finger stuck by a pharmacist similar to a test for blood glucose and cholesterol levels to understand whether you have antibodies to the virus. We are working through different models and we believe there will be other forms of testing in the very near future.  

Other than testing, Walmart also tapped into our supply chain and apparel expertise to help McKesson source and deliver more than 2.5 million gowns and coveralls by the end of April. Looking ahead, we believe we can add another 6 million gowns into the supply chain in May, with millions more in June and beyond. We’re doing this important work in collaboration with McKesson who has the ability to distribute these critical products to healthcare professionals across the United States.   

We are iterating and expanding every day. And we continue to monitor the developments in technology around us, including new testing capabilities, to determine how we can continue to scale our efforts and support as many people as possible.