Vulnerable people living in assisted living facilities are in a high-risk situation, as are those in nursing homes. But the rollout for COVID-19 vaccines does not prioritize this group of people in the first phase of nationwide vaccinations. These elderly people, who are physically independent but often still require medical care, live in the same community facilities, putting nursing home residents at an increased risk of contracting the virus.
According to ABC News, assisted living facilities – or ALFs – are not federally regulated, so no data is available on how COVID-19 affected this group of people.
“The risk of spread and transmission in the community in an assisted living facility is just as high as in a nursing home,” said Zach Shamberg, president of the Pennsylvania Health Care Association. In Pennsylvania, assisted living were not among the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, so they had to wait several months for their turn. Last week, however, Gov. Tom Wolf announced an expansion of vaccine distribution in that state, including those living in phase 1A assisted living.
Shamberg told ABC News that with the current rate of drug delivery in Pennsylvania, many assistant resident residents aren’t getting their second chance until April or May or even later.
“We are talking about still potentially vaccinating our most vulnerable residents in the summer months,” he said. Experts say assistant resident residents fell through the cracks because public health officials believed there was only enough vaccine for people in nursing homes.
Even in states that have included assistant living residents in their vaccine distribution plan, there have been delays and snafus.
These problems have frustrated many facility operators. Robert Loomis, the administrator of A Country Place, an assisted living in the Tampa Bay area, said he was forced to call Walgreens, one of two pharmacies to deliver vaccines to rural nursing homes, to beg the pharmacy to act. the pace.
“ My frustration was with the way decisions were made with the shots, ” he told the Tampa Bay Times. “ Weeks passed and we saw mass distribution to the public, but not to us. ”
CVS and Walgreen pharmacies deliver the drugs to long-term care facilities through the federal Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care Program.
Veronica Catoe, CEO of the Florida Assisted Living Association, told the Times that there remains “ frustration and confusion about the initial rollout of vaccinations in ALFs and why these communities have been prioritized behind nursing homes and many at 65 in general. and parent populations. ”
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