CVS plans to complete first round of Covid vaccines in nursing homes by January 25

CVS Health said on Wednesday it was on track to complete the first round of Covid-19 vaccines in nursing homes across the country by January 25.

The federal government has partnered with CVS and Walgreens to deliver vaccines to residents and staff in long-term care facilities across the country. CVS said it is close to meeting its original target for nursing homes it has already partnered with.

CVS said it now administers injections to residents and staff of nursing homes in 49 states and the District of Columbia. In addition to nursing homes, the company will also vaccinate residents and staff of assisted living facilities, with nearly 31,000 of these facilities partnering with CVS, according to the company.

The company said it faced a few challenges during the program. The actual number of residents in nursing homes was about 20% to 30% lower than projections based on the number of beds, CVS said. And he noted that “initial enrollment among staff is low,” adding that part of this is likely due to facilities wanting to stagger staff vaccinations. The installations are spaced out employee vaccinations to avoid shortages in case side effects keep some staff at home for a few days.

“We are dealing with a vulnerable population that requires on-site and, in some cases, room visits to facilities with less than 100 residents on average,” Larry Merlo, CEO of CVS Health, said in a statement. “Despite these challenges, we are staying on schedule and the number of vaccines we administer will continue to increase as more facilities are activated by states.

While more than 3.2 million doses of the vaccine have been distributed by the federal government as part of the so-called Federal Pharmaceutical Partnership for Long-Term Care Program, only 429,000 were administered on Tuesday, according to data from the Centers. for Disease Control and Prevention. . But CVS noted that the CDC’s data is two to three days behind in reality, which the CDC acknowledges.

The vaccine deployment has been slower than expected by federal authorities. Trump administration officials had said they hoped to vaccinate 20 million people by December, but as of Tuesday just over 4.8 million received the first dose, according to the CDC.

Dr Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Vaccination and Respiratory Disease, told an event hosted by STAT News on Tuesday that she expects the deployment to accelerate this month.

“I really expect the pace of administration to increase quite massively over the next several weeks,” she said, adding that the facilities are fixing the issues early and getting to grips with the process. vaccine handling.

The Department of Health and Human Resources has appealed to CVS and other retail pharmacies to potentially offer vaccines at sites across the country when the general rollout begins. CVS said on Wednesday it was in talks with several states “to make a limited number of doses available in the coming weeks ahead of the wider deployment.”

CVS’s comments come after Politico reported on Tuesday that a senior HHS official said 3,000 to 6,000 pharmacies could start administering Covid-19 injections within the next two weeks.

– CNBC Melissa Repko and Kevin stankiewicz contributed to this report.