CVS hiring for COVID-19 vaccine help
With Connecticut residents having more questions on Wednesday than officials could deliver answers on how COVID-19 vaccines will be distributed, CVS and Walgreens said they are staffed and ready to handle waves of people in the coming months as the U.S. Food & Drug Administration signs off on vaccine safety.
Gov. Ned Lamont and his senior vaccine advisers fielded questions Wednesday night during a “town hall” telecast and streamed on WTNH News 8. On key questions like the allocation of vaccines within subsectors of the population — and how state residents will learn it’s their turn to get inoculated — the governor’s advisers indicated they are still working out details with the first vaccine from BioNTech and Pfizer on the doorstep of deliveries.
On Thursday, Lamont said he is currently assuming Connecticut hospitals will begin receiving shipments of the Pfizer vaccine on Monday or Tuesday, with CVS and Walgreens to begin vaccinations at nursing homes by Dec. 21. Josh Geballe, chief operating officer in the Lamont administration, said the anticipated initial batch of more than 31,000 doses will be split evenly between hospitals and nursing homes.
The FDA has opened to the public a daylong technical meeting to weigh the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine candidate which kicks off at 9 a.m. Separately Wednesday, the FDA issued an emergency authorization for what it said is the first kit allowing people to test for COVID-19 in their home, with samples sent to be sent to LabCorp.
“I think the federal government is getting this as right today as it got it wrong with [personal protective equipment] eight months ago when they said, ‘States — you’re on your own,’” Lamont said Thursday. “It was a mad scramble. This time — not perfect, but they made massive [vaccine] purchases.”
Lamont’s office is operating under the understanding that Connecticut will have received vaccine dosages sufficient for more than 230,000 residents through the end of January, with health workers and nursing home residents at the front of the line, along with other seniors considered at high risk for complications from COVID-19. The BioNTech and Pfizer vaccine requires twin doses administered weeks apart, as is the case with a vaccine from Moderna the FDA is reviewing.
According to the state’s most recent estimates online, Connecticut is reporting 5,327 people having died of complications from COVID-19 or thought to have, with more than 1,200 hospitalized as of Wednesday.
“We’re waiting for the recommendations from the CDC that will be meeting on Friday and Sunday, and [the advisory group is] in the process now of further spelling out for the public in Connecticut how that ... phase of vaccinations will roll out,” said Deidre Gifford, acting commissioner of the state Department of Public Health, speaking Wednesday on News 8. “This is a quickly evolving situation in terms of the prioritization that will be coming down the pike for the next group. ... We will be making recommendations to the governor about the membership and the priorities in that next group and then sharing them with the public promptly, as soon as those recommendations are finalized — so more to come in the days and weeks ahead.”
On Wednesday, the Connecticut COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Group laid out a series of subcommittee meetings that will be webcast on the Connecticut Network, with the group not convening again as a whole until Thursday, Dec. 17. To date, the advisory group has posted materials from two general meetings it has held along with a draft version of Connecticut’s initial draft vaccination plan filed in October to the CDC.
The governor’s office did not indicate immediately Thursday on whether Lamont is satisfied with the pace of his advisory group’s progress, with Geballe saying he and Gifford have been meeting regularly with CVS and Walgreens on their plans for nursing home vaccination clinics.
He added the Department of Public Health has been working to line up additional vaccination clinics to include other pharmacies, community health centers and municipal health departments.
“You will see a very dramatic and large-scale ramp up of administration sites across the state,” Geballe said.
On Wednesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo aired the latest thinking for distribution of some 170,000 vaccines he expects the state to receive initially from Pfizer, which will be administered to “high risk” workers in hospital emergency rooms, intensive-care units and pulmonary departments. New York City is earmarked to receive 72,000 doses, with just over 19,000 destined for the Mid-Hudson region and 26,500 for Long Island.
Next up in New York will be residents and staff at nursing homes, emergency medical responders and other health care workers, with a Cuomo press release not going into further detail on how that last group might be prioritized across job functions and medical specialties.
Pharmacies and hospitals have been making their own prep
arations in tandem, including CVS Health where leaders are expressing confidence they will have the vaccination staff and systems to handle demand in the coming months that will expand and contract like an accordion as shipments arrive. CVS Health has about 180 locations in Connecticut, with the company readying plans to dispatch vaccination teams to nursing homes as well.
CVS Health has been hiring nurses and pharmacists specifically for “COVID-19 vaccine support” in its words, along with pharmacy technicians to handle most tasks except giving injections. In its job ads, CVS indicates those pharmacy technicians could get opportunities to get certified to administer vaccinations in states where that is allowed, without indicating how long that would take. In an email response to a query, spokesperson Tara Burke stated CVS will use about 1,100 pharmacies for central storage and use a “hub and spoke” model in which others will pick up doses en route to nursing homes.
“Ensuring we maintain the appropriate staffing levels going forward is what any responsible company would do,” Burke said.
“Bottom line, we’re ready to go as soon as we start receiving shipments.”
Like CVS, Walgreens plans to rely primarily on its own vaccination staff rather than bring in external contractors like visiting nurse associations which run vaccination clinics in towns across Connecticut during flu season. A spokesperson expressed confidence in the company bring able to hire to meet the need, with Walgreens offering bonuses of up to $30,000 depending on qualifications and giving employees a $500 bounty for referring people who are hired for the job.
“Many of our pharmacists have shown considerable enthusiasm and support for being a part of this historic milestone,” stated Rina Shah, group vice president of pharmacy operations, in a statement forwarded by a spokesperson. “We continue to engage our pharmacists regularly on COVID-19 vaccination opportunities.”