Amazon has offered help to US President Joe Biden in distributing the COVID-19 vaccines, as the new administration pushes to vaccinate 100 million people over the next 100 days.

In a letter to Biden, Dave Clark, CEO Worldwide Consumer at Amazon, said that the company is well placed to administer vaccines on-site at its facilities such as fulfilment centres and Whole Foods supermarkets, and has an agreement with a third-party occupational health care provider to do so.

Dave Clark, Amazon.

“Additionally, we are prepared to leverage our operations, information technology, and communications capabilities and expertise to assist your administration’s vaccination efforts.

“Our scale allows us to make a meaningful impact immediately in the fight against COVID-19, and we stand ready to assist you in this effort,” said Clark.

Clark also said that as the second largest employer in the US with more than 800,000 employees, many of Amazon’s staff are essential workers who need to be vaccinated as soon as possible.

“The essential employees working at Amazon fulfilment centres, AWS data centres, and Whole Foods Market stores across the country who cannot work from home should receive the COVID-19 vaccine at the earliest appropriate time. We will assist them in that effort,” he said.

An agreement between Amazon and the Biden administration could see the retailer leverage its vast and extensive distribution network to quickly ship the vaccines, which are tricky to transport as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in particular must be frozen during shipping.