POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (AP) – The first COVID-19 vaccinations are underway in nursing homes in the US, where the virus has killed more than 110,000 people, even as the nation struggles to stem a wave so alarming that it has led California to commit incited thousands to provide body bags and line up refrigerated morgue trucks.
As the rollout of shots accelerated on Wednesday, Washington lawmakers hatched a long-stalled $ 900 billion coronavirus aid package that would send direct payments of about $ 600 to most Americans. Meanwhile, the US seemed days away from adding a second vaccine to its arsenal.
At the same time, a major snowstorm that forced its way to the Northeast raised concerns that it could disrupt the distribution of the first vaccine.
Residents of nursing homes in Florida began receiving injections Wednesday, after nearly 2,000 such vaccinations were administered in West Virginia on Tuesday. There are thousands more on the program in the coming days. Other states are expected to follow shortly.
The elderly and sick in long-term care are among the most vulnerable to the virus and, along with health professionals, are the first to receive the limited, first-time supplies of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech. Nursing home residents and workers account for more than a third of the approximately 300,000 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the country.
In Florida, the old sanctuary where 141,000 nursing home residents are the second largest in all states after California, the eagerness to get the vaccine was mixed with some concern.
“I hope it will help me get COVID,” said 88-year-old retired schoolteacher Vera Leip, a resident of John Knox Village near Fort Lauderdale. “I don’t know about it, but I’d rather not have it.”
The home does not require its employees to receive the vaccine, and only 80 of the 200 staff in the skilled nursing facility have volunteered for the first wave, said Mark Rayner, the director of health services. He said many of those who refuse the shot are African-American and don’t trust it, given the country’s history of medical experiments on black people.
“They are scared,” he said. “There is that line of culture, even when we teach them.”
West Virginia, with one of the oldest and most unhealthy populations in America, is partnering with small and local pharmacies to reach nursing homes in the heavily rural state, fast-growing states that rely on a partnership with the CVS and Walgreens drugstore chains every day. now.
Marty Wright, head of the West Virginia Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes and assisted living communities, said the state’s pharmacies expect to receive 7,000 doses by the end of the week.
The developments come as the crisis becomes more and more acute due to many measures.
The US registered more than 3,000 deaths on Tuesday for the third time in less than a week, easily eclipsing last spring’s peaks. The number of new cases is on average more than 212,000 per day. And the number of Americans hospitalized with COVID-19 hit another record high of about 113,000 on Tuesday.
California is distributing 5,000 body bags, mostly to the hard-hit areas of Los Angeles and San Diego, and has 60 refrigerated trailers ready as makeshift morgues. The state has an average of 163 virus deaths per day, compared to 63 just two weeks ago.
Many California hospitals are short of space in intensive care units, as the state records an average of about 32,500 new virus cases per day. That’s at the beginning of the month of about 14,000 a day.
In Fresno County, officials said on Tuesday that only 16 ICU beds were available and were quickly filled. To keep up, the county hospital system has contracted a Virginia company to provide doctors, nurses, and others to a temporary 50-bed facility that will receive patients by the end of the week.
“Unfortunately, I expect a bleak series of weeks before and after the New Year, given the trends we see with the number of cases alone,” said Dr. Rais Vohra, the county’s interim public health officer.
In Orange County, health officials planned to send large tents to four hospitals to help patients.
Bruce Barton, Riverside County EMS director, said a few hospitals reached capacity in the past week and local officials had to step in to take some of the bodies.
Hospitals are also under pressure in Arizona, where a record 92% of beds are filled, nearly half of which are people with COVID-19.
“That’s a staggering statistic when you think about the things that can affect people,” said Dr. Joshua LaBaer, executive director of Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute. “And it certainly means that hospitals have to make decisions right now to keep people out of the hospital to keep beds available for the COVID patients.”
In the country’s capital, congress leaders said they hoped to negotiate a deal as early as Wednesday on a package that would provide assistance to individuals and businesses and help ship vaccines to millions. It would include improved federal unemployment benefits and a new round of stimulus checks.
On Thursday, a government advisory panel will consider whether to approve emergency use of a second vaccine made by Moderna.
Meanwhile, officials overseeing the distribution of the first vaccine said they did not expect the winter storm to disrupt distribution.
US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said the government is closely monitoring vaccine shipments, has on-site staff to receive them and believes the companies transporting them – FedEx and UPS – have the expertise to navigate the storm.
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Associated Press writers Cuneyt Dil in Charleston, West Virginia, Olga R. Rodriguez in Fresno, California, Bob Christie in Phoenix, and Andrew Taylor in Washington contributed to this story.