White House Recruits Uber, Walgreens in Anti-COVID Plan

Uber and Walgreens have launched a partnership with the White House to provide free deliveries of the prescription COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid straight to customers’ doorsteps.

In an announcement published on its website Tuesday (Oct. 25), Uber said the partnership, set to launch in the coming weeks at Walgreens stores around the country, will provide free Paxlovid deliveries for patients with a prescription who “are in socially vulnerable or underserved communities, based on the CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability Index.”

Uber said in the announcement this new initiative continues its two-plus years of collaboration with Walgreens, and “is the latest effort we’re undertaking to help ensure that transportation is never a barrier to accessing the tools needed to fight COVID-19.”

Last year, the President Joe Biden administration tapped Uber to provide free rides to vaccine sites nationwide. The ride-hailing and delivery giant also teamed with Walgreens and PayPal in April 2021 to give $11 million to the Vaccine Access Fund to help people in underserved communities reach vaccination sites.

As PYMNTS reported earlier this month, Walgreens has been expanding its COVID-era in-store activities, as well as its fast-growing in-home treatment business, as evidenced by its acquisition of CareCentrix. Combined with its Village MD and Shield units, these businesses have delivered top-line growth of 75% within its United States healthcare segment, CEO Rosalind Brewer said.

Meanwhile, consumers have embraced digital tools in the COVID era to fend off health issues, research by PYMNTS has found.

Read more: Health-Tracking Wearables Are a Fit for 43% of US Consumers

The study “Connected Wellness: What’s Next in the Connected Economy,” a PYMNTS and CareCredit collaboration, found that in the nine months leading to August of this year, 10 million more American consumers began using websites and wearables to monitor vitals and chronic health conditions. That means 148 million U.S. consumers — about 44% of the country’s population — now use some form of preventive digital healthcare tool.