Starbucks to help Washington's coronavirus vaccine effort

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Massachusetts repurposes Patriots' stadium as COVID vaccination site

Correspondent Molly Line reports from Foxborough, Mass. on 'Special Report'

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is teaming up with a number of major businesses, like Starbucks, to help streamline its coronavirus vaccine rollout as a means to significantly increase the rate at which it can vaccinate residents.

On Monday, Inslee announced a statewide public-private partnership to build up the state’s infrastructure so that it is able to eventually able to vaccinate 45,000 residents per day.

Each stakeholder in the group has a different responsibility.

Starbucks is expected to commit employees to help optimize vaccination sites, with a focus on patient experience, the company said. They will also help with scalable solutions for equitable access and expanding site selection across 39 counties and 29 tribal nations.

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"This is an opportunity to serve others and have impact on a significant humanitarian effort," Kevin Johnson, Starbucks president and CEO, said in a statement. "Governor Inslee has convened some of the best public and private resources and capabilities to engage in a concerted effort to optimize and accelerate the vaccination process across our home state. We are proud to contribute in every way we can to help operationalize and scale equitable access to the vaccine."

Starbucks clarified that its physical store locations would not serve as vaccination sites.

Aside from Starbucks, Microsoft, Costco and SeaMar will also participate.

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Washington State was given about 696,175 doses and it has so far administered 242,606, according to CDC.

About 31.1 million doses have been distributed throughout the U.S., but only 12.2 million have been distributed, according to data from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control.