White House Partnering with Uber, Lyft to Offer Free Vaccination Rides

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The White House is launching a new partnership with Uber and Lyft to help enable the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

White House Covid-19 coordinator Jeff Zients announced the program in a Tuesday call with state governors. The two companies had previously offered free or discounted rides to Americans seeking to get vaccinated, but only under certain circumstances. Under the new plan, the companies are set to begin offering free rides to any of about 80,000 vaccination sites around the nation.

“People will be able to simply select a vaccination site near them, follow simple directions to redeem their ride, and then get a ride to take them to and from a nearby vaccination site free of charge. The feature will launch in the next two weeks and run until July 4,” the White House said in a statement. “By helping Americans get a free ride to a vaccination site, Lyft and Uber are eliminating a potential barrier and driving America closer to the President’s goal of getting 70% of the U.S. adult population with at least one shot by July 4th.”

President Joe Biden is expected to say more about the program on Tuesday afternoon. It comes as part of a target Biden set last week of vaccinating 70 percent of U.S. adults by July 4. A little more than 152 million American adults — or 46 percent of the total population — had been vaccinated as of May 11, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A little more than 115 million — or 35 percent — had been fully vaccinated.