A CVS pharmacy manager prepares a dose of coronavirus disease vaccine (COVID-19) at Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke, Massachusetts, December 29, 2020.
Hoang ‘Leon’ Nguyen | The Republican | Pool | via Reuters
CVS Health said on Wednesday that it is on track to complete the first round of vaccines against Covid-19 in nursing homes across the country by January 25.
The federal government has partnered with CVS and Walgreens to administer injections to residents and employees at long-term care institutions across the country. CVS said it is on track to meet its original goal for the nursing homes with which it has already partnered.
CVS said it is now administering vaccines to residents and employees of nursing homes in 49 states and the District of Columbia. In addition to nursing homes, the company will also vaccinate residents and employees in assisted living facilities, with about 31,000 of these facilities in partnership with CVS, according to the company.
The company said it faced some challenges during the program. The actual number of residents in nursing homes was about 20% to 30% less than projections based on bed count, CVS said. And he noted that “initial acceptance among employees is low”, adding that part of this is probably due to facilities that want to schedule employee vaccinations. The facilities are spacing out vaccinating employees to avoid shortages if side effects keep some employees at home for a few days.
“We are dealing with a vulnerable population that requires on-site visits and, in some cases, rooms on the premises with less than 100 residents on average,” said Larry Merlo, CEO of CVS Health, in a statement. “Despite these challenges, we remain on schedule and the number of vaccines we administer will continue to increase as more units are activated by the states.”
Although more than 3.2 million doses of the vaccine have been distributed by the federal government through the so-called federal pharmaceutical partnership for the long-term care program, only 429,000 have been administered by Tuesday, according to data from the Control Center and Disease Prevention. But CVS noted that CDC data delay reality by two to three days, which the CDC recognizes.
The vaccine’s launch was slower than federal authorities predicted. Trump administration officials said they hoped to vaccinate 20 million people in December, but as of Tuesday, just over 4.8 million had received the first dose, according to the CDC.
Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said on Tuesday at an event organized by STAT News that she expects the launch to accelerate this month.
“I really hope that the pace of administration will pick up a lot in the coming weeks,” she said, adding that the facility is recovering early and is comfortable handling vaccines.
The Department of Health and Human Resources used CVS and other retail pharmacies to eventually offer vaccines at locations across the country when the broader deployment begins. CVS said on Wednesday that it is in negotiations with several states “to make a limited number of doses available in the coming weeks before the broader launch.”
CVS comments were made after Politico reported on Tuesday that a senior HHS official said that 3,000 to 6,000 pharmacies could start administering Covid-19 vaccines in the next two weeks.
– CNBC’s Melissa Repko and Kevin Stankiewicz contributed to this report.