Vulnerable people living in nursing homes are at high risk, as are those in nursing homes. But the COVID-19 vaccine deployment plan does not prioritize this group of people in the first phase of vaccines across the country. Those older individuals who are physically independent, but often still need medical care, are living in the same community facilities that put nursing home residents at greater risk of contracting the virus.
According to ABC News, assisted living – or ALFs – are not regulated by the federal government, so there is no data available on how COVID-19 affected this group of people.
“The risk of spread and transmission by the community in an assisted health facility is as high as in a nursing home,” said Zach Shamberg, president of the Pennsylvania Health Association. In Pennsylvania, assisted living residents were not the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, causing a wait of several months before their turn came. However, last week, Governor Tom Wolf announced an expansion of the vaccine distribution in that state that would include those living in Phase 1A assisted living residents.
Shamberg told ABC News that with the current pace of drug administration in Pennsylvania, many residents living with assisted living may not receive their second injection until April or May, or even later.
“We are talking about the possibility of vaccinating our most vulnerable residents in the summer months,” he said. Experts say that residents who were living with assistance had not realized why public health officials thought there was enough vaccine for those living in nursing homes.
Even in states that included assisted living residents in their vaccine distribution plans, there were delays and confusion.
These problems frustrate many facility administrators. 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 in charge of delivering vaccines to nursing homes across the country, to beg the pharmacy to step up the pace.
“My frustration was with the way decisions were made with the shots,” he told the Tampa Bay Times. ” Weeks went by and we were seeing massive distribution to the public, but not to us. ”
CVS and Walgreen pharmacies are administering drugs in 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 is still ” frustration and confusion about the initial launch of vaccinations in ALFs and why these communities have been prioritized behind nursing homes and many in general aged 65 or over . ”
© 2021 Newsmax. All rights reserved.