Nearly half of Florida nursing home residents have received their initial dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, the state’s surgeon general reported late this week, while Gov. Ron DeSantis has ordered reinforcements to speed up the vaccination process for assisted living facilities throughout the state as long-term care infection rates skyrocket.
“I think everybody’s just so eager to get this done,” said Gail Matillo, president and CEO of the Florida Senior Living Association, which represents assisted- and independent-living facilities and memory care centers. “With the COVID case numbers going up and up and up, our members are saying, ‘I want that vaccine now.’ “
Throughout the pandemic, the biggest risk to long-term care residents has come from infected health-care workers and other staff spreading the virus within facilities. On Friday, the state reported 3,380 residents had tested positive for the virus — more than double the number of one month ago. In addition, 2,897 workers were reported infected, a 52-percent rise from early December.
More than 8,400 residents and staff have died of COVID-19, about 37 percent of the state’s total.
Dr. Scott Rivkees, the state’s surgeon general, said the vaccine has been much slower to reach long-term care staff than residents.
“The vaccination rates for staff is 20 percent,” he said. “This is concerning because … you can have asymptomatic spread, you can have pre-symptomatic spread.”
Rivkees, speaking on a conference call to long-term care administrators, urged them to encourage their workers to get the vaccine as soon as possible.
Initially, the federal government had contracted Walgreens and CVS Health to handle vaccinating all long-term care residents and staff in most of the nation, including Florida. But after complaints of delays, confusion and what Florida’s Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz called a “mediocre” job, DeSantis this week brought in CDR Health, a private firm that helps state and local governments manage pandemics.
CEO Tina Vidal-Duart said her company would take over scheduling vaccine delivery for any assisted living facilities that don’t already have initial vaccination dates on or before Jan. 23.
“The good news is that we’re seeing this process work,” said Jason Hand, Florida Senior Living Association’s vice president of public policy and legal affairs. “It seems like everybody is now going full speed ahead.”
On Dec. 20, a federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee on immunization practices recommended that long-term care residents be the first to receive the vaccine, though it has been up to individual states — and often individual counties — to decide how the limited quantities of vaccine are distributed. On Dec. 23, DeSantis signed an executive order expanding vaccinations to anyone 65 and older, regardless of their health or living situation.
By Friday, more than 443,000 Floridians had received at least the first dose of the vaccine.
Of those, CVS Health reported that it had finished the first round of vaccines at 387 of 484 Florida facilities, with 76 more facilities slated for the coming week.
While Walgreens did not provide its vaccine numbers, the company announced Thursday that it expects to complete the first round of shots at all 35,000 assigned long-term care facilities nationwide by Jan. 25.
The company also said it expects to continue working with states as they expand their vaccine programs to essential workers and that, once the shots are available for mass distribution, people will be able to schedule vaccination appointments at more than 9,000 Walgreens stores.
