A buyer carrying a face masks exits a Walgreens pharmacy in South Seaside on April 14, 2020 in Miami Seaside, Florida.
Cliff Hawkins | Getty Photographs
The Trump administration stated Wednesday that it’s seeing “large uptake” of a program that may enable CVS Well being and Walgreens to manage coronavirus vaccines to seniors in long-term care services.
Well being and Human Companies Secretary Alex Azar stated that 99% of expert nursing services throughout the nation have signed up for this system, which is able to give Covid-19 vaccines to seniors freed from cost and shall be obtainable to residents in all long-term care settings, together with expert nursing services, assisted residing services, residential care houses and grownup household houses. He stated 100% of services in 20 states are signed up.
“Utilizing pharmacy networks permits us to broaden entry past simply standalone brick-and-mortar pharmacies, as a result of pharmacists, pharmacy interns, and pharmacy technicians additionally present vaccinations in locations like grocery shops,” Azar stated throughout a press convention on the Trump administration’s vaccine program Operation Warp Velocity. “The last word purpose right here is to make getting a Covid-19 vaccine as handy as getting a flu shot.”
Azar’s feedback come hours after Pfizer introduced it could search emergency use authorization with the Meals and Drug Administration within the coming days after a remaining information evaluation discovered its vaccine was extremely efficient, secure and appeared to forestall extreme illness. If approved, the vaccine will seemingly be launched in phases, with health-care staff and weak Individuals, such because the aged and people with preexisting circumstances, getting it first.
The Trump administration first introduced this system with CVS and Walgreens in October. Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies Administrator Seema Verma stated on the time that this system would make sure that nursing houses, which have been hit exhausting by the virus, “are on the entrance of the road for the Covid vaccine and can convey their grueling trial to a detailed as swiftly as doable.”
There are about 15,000 long-term care services in addition to an extra 35,000 assisted residing services within the U.S., the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention has estimated. Between 9,000 and 10,000 services had already opted into this system by late October, in keeping with U.S. well being officers.
This system is non-compulsory, and the services can opt-in to this system by way of the CDC’s Nationwide Healthcare Security Community. If a facility chooses to not opt-in, there shall be the opportunity of having the ability to administer vaccines by way of different sources, together with from native pharmacies, officers have stated.