A health professional at the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center will receive a COVID-19 vaccination in Portland, Oregon on December 16, 2020. Pfizer’s first rounds of vaccination were administered in Oregon on Wednesday.
Nathan Howard | Getty Images
For nursing homes across the country, the coronavirus pandemic was mainly characterized by isolation, illness and loss. On Friday, CVS Health and Walgreens will begin vaccinations against Covid-19 for residents and staff in those long-term care facilities, making them among the first Americans to receive the injections.
Walgreens said his pharmacists will administer the shots at nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Ohio, Connecticut and Florida. CVS said it will deliver them to facilities in Ohio and Connecticut.
Both companies will expand to facilities in other states next week.
The introduction of vaccines into long-term care facilities is one of the first steps in a national effort to reach the most at-risk Americans and then the general public. It’s a faster start for the companies, which are expected to start vaccinations next week. Health workers, including those working in emergency rooms and intensive care units, began receiving Covid-19 vaccinations Monday. Nursing homes and assisted living facilities are also at the top of the priority list, as older and sicker Americans live there who have been particularly hard hit by the corona virus.
Less than 1% of the U.S. population lives in long-term care facilities, but they are responsible for nearly 40% of all Covid-19 deaths in the country on Dec. 10, according to The Covid Tracking Project, an effort led by The Atlantic Ocean to understand the consequences of the coronavirus.
The vaccines will eventually be available at neighborhood drugstores and supermarkets. Walgreens and CVS Health officials said they expect to have Covid-19 shots available to the general public in their stores by early spring.
CVS and Walgreens will play a key role in distribution in long-term care facilities, following agreements with the federal government in October to run the on-site clinics. Their pharmacists and technicians will initially use the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, which has been approved for emergency use by the Food & Drug Administration. The Moderna vaccine is expected to receive FDA approval for release for distribution and use in the coming days. Both vaccines require two doses.
Chris Cox, a senior vice president at CVS and the company’s liaison officer for Operation Warp Speed, a federal effort to help develop, distribute and administer the Covid vaccines, said he will use the Covid-19 data in the first months. of the pandemic and that he was concerned by the disproportionate number of deaths in nursing homes.
He said the US can “really put a dent” in the impact of the coronavirus by quickly and safely vaccinating such a vulnerable population.
For CFS, the vaccinations on Friday will also be the very first. Chief Operating Officer Jon Roberts and Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont will watch a resident get the first admission of their staff to a skilled nursing facility in West Hartford.
Through a spokesperson, CVS said it expects to vaccinate about 500 people in 3 Connecticut facilities Friday and approximately 1,000 people in 4 Ohio facilities on Friday, based on figures provided by the long-term care facilities.
More than 40,000 long-term care facilities have chosen CFS to provide the vaccinations. Next week, the company’s pharmacists and technicians expect to give doses from the facilities in 12 states, including Connecticut and Ohio.
Walgreens expects to give vaccinations to nearly 3 million residents and staff of 35,000 long-term care facilities. On Friday and Saturday, a company spokeswoman said she plans to send teams to eight to 10 facilities. Next week, it will provide vaccinations in about 800 long-term care facilities in 12 states.