Residents and staff in long term care facilities in Nebraska could receive the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as the last week of December.
Governor Pete Ricketts says they have to have a stock pile before beginning.
“We’ve got about 50,000 people – staff and residents – so we need roughly that amount to get started on it.”
Ricketts says companies like CVS and Walgreens will go into the facilities and vaccinate the residents.
“The federal government contracted with CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens and community pharmacies to be able to do that distribution for the long term care facilities,” Ricketts said.
The FDA is expected to give emergency use authorization to the Moderna vaccine in the next few days. Ricketts says Nebraska should receive more than 32,000 doses of the drug, which will be used to vaccinate the people in long term care facilities.
If a long term care facility is not near a pharmacy the local public health department takes responsibility. Ricketts said for some reason about 114 have not entered into the federal government program.
Inside the facilities, COVID-19 deaths and cases are rising in the state’s long term care facilities.
Nebraska’s Chief Medical Doctor, Gary Anthone, says the trend follows community data.
“As we saw the surge here over the last two to three weeks in the past, we saw the same surge in our long term care facilities,” Anthone said.
Anthone said an advantage Nebraska has is monoclonal antibody treatment along with other infection prevention.
Anthone’s response followed a question regarding AARP calling for stricter and transparent action in long term care facilities.
“The data shows that Nebraska is desperately moving in a bad direction. Nursing home residents remain in grave danger as the virus enters nursing homes at a frightening pace,” said AARP Nebraska State Director Todd Stubbendieck.
In the four weeks analyzed, Oct.19 to Nov.15, AARP’s dashboard reports that Nebraska nursing homes had:
- 11 new COVID-19 resident cases per 100 residents, more than three times the rate of 3.4 per 100 in the previous four-week period from Sept. 21 to Oct. 18. Nearly 56% of facilities have confirmed resident cases, up from 31.4%.
- 27 COVID-19 deaths per 100 residents, nearly three times the previous rate of .45 deaths per 100 residents.
- 4 new staff COVID-19 cases per 100 residents, more than twice as high as last month’s 5.5.
- 94.6% of facilities with confirmed staff cases, up from 75%.
- 30% of nursing homes without a 1-week supply of personal protective equipment, up from 27%.
- 47% of nursing homes with staffing shortages, up from 42%.
For the latest reporting period, nursing home deaths comprised 54% of all COVID-19 deaths in Nebraska. Stubbendieck warned that the trend would continue to worsen unless Nebraskans act immediately to turn the tide.
“This is a call to action for those of us outside nursing homes to do what’s right in order to protect those who are in nursing homes,” he said. “Residents are doing the right thing. They are staying in the facilities, social distancing, and have very limited visitation, but are still bearing the brunt of this disease. For these numbers to look better in January, the rest of us need to change our behavior now.”