Officials: More than 600 Pa. nursing homes have received 2nd covid vaccine doses

State officials said they have surpassed an “important milestone” in the mission to vaccinate long-term care residents in Pennsylvania.

As of last week, Walgreens has conducted first-dose clinics in nearly 100 locations, while CVS Health has conducted both first- and second-dose clinics at all of its participating skilled nursing facilities.

That amounts to over 600 locations in all.

Gov. Tom Wolf said 100% of personal care homes and assisted living facilities covered by the partnership have completed their first-dose clinics.

“The federal pharmacy partnership is saving lives,” Wolf said. “It’s protecting residents, it’s protecting staff, while giving families peace of mind that their loved ones are safe.”

More than 150,000 doses of vaccine have been administered to long-term care residents, and more than 140,000 to staff members.

Altogether, more than 300,000 vaccines have been administered to skilled nursing facilities, personal care and assisted living facilities covered by the partnership.

The vaccination milestone is part of the Federal Pharmacy Partnership program in which CVS and Walgreens are Pennsylvania’s partners. Leaders at CVS say they have completed first- and second-dose clinics at all skilled nursing facilities they were tasked with serving, with more than 200,000 vaccines given.

They expect to finish second-dose clinics for personal care and assisted living facilities by mid-March.

“We are honored to be part of the solution to the greatest public health challenge of our time,” said Andreas Chandra, CVS Health district leader.

Officials said this milestone doesn’t mean Pennsylvanians should expect the state to move on to Phase 1B anytime soon. Wolf pointed out that Phase 1A includes 4.5 million people, which equates to 9 million doses. Fewer than 3 million have been administered.

“We have a ways to go,” he said.

Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam added the state wants to be sure there is enough vaccine available to everyone eligible before moving to 1B. Last month, when officials expanded Phase 1A to include people older than 65 and those with certain health conditions, there was not enough vaccine to accommodate them.

“The demand is so incredibly high, and we still have a tremendous amount of folks that technically could avail themselves of a vaccine. They are in 1A, but they can’t actually access it,” Beam said.

“We want to make sure that when we actually transition into Phase 1B, which is so many valuable workers that have really shown tremendous dedication to our communities throughout this entire covid response, that they’re actually able to access a covid vaccine.”

Beam said the hope is for the federal pharmacy partnership to keep up consistent levels of vaccination at all facilities they serve — keeping existing relationships to inoculate new residents and new staff members as time passes.

Each facility will have at least three vaccination clinics, Beam said, to make sure that if a resident or staff member declined the vaccine at first, they’ll still have additional chances to receive both doses.

“This was just the first part of the long-term care vaccination mission,” Beam said.

Early research suggests widespread vaccination in long-term care facilities is reducing the rate of covid-19 cases and deaths nationwide. The Department of Health did not respond Tuesday afternoon to a message asking whether this trend holds up in Pennsylvania.

But long-term care residents have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic in Pennsylvania, making up about 52% of covid-related deaths, according to state data. It’s impossible to know the exact toll the virus has had on long-term care communities, however, because of flawed and often inaccurate facility-level data.

Pennsylvania’s Senior Adviser for Covid Response Lindsey Mauldin said that as of Feb. 22, providers have administered more than 2 million doses of the covid vaccine. She said 80% of the state’s supply of first doses has been administered, and 42% of second doses has been administered.

That means that nearly 1.5 million Pennsylvanians have received their first dose, and nearly 600,000 people are fully vaccinated.

This week, Pennsylvania was allocated 225,890 first doses of vaccine — the highest single-week allotment of first doses the state has received since the beginning of the rollout. That’s an increase of more than 42,000 doses. The commonwealth also is receiving 180,610 second doses, an increase of nearly 40,000.

Mauldin said the federal government also is sending tens of thousands of doses directly to some pharmacies and federally qualified health centers. In total, she said there are well over 400,000 doses coming into Pennsylvania this week.