Nursing home shots to begin

COVID-19 vaccines consist of two doses

CVS said it will start COVID-19 vaccinations at nearly 1,000 Indiana skilled nursing homes and assisted living facilities on Monday.

The plan is to inoculate up to 140,000 people, spokesman Charlie Rice-Minoso said.

The COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna require two doses, either 21 or 28 days apart. Pharmacists will visit each nursing home three times to give an initial and booster shot to residents and staff. It plans to finish vaccination efforts within three months, he said.

The pharmacy chain plans to offer COVID-19 vaccines at its locations to the public by appointment at a later date, it said. It would have capacity for 20-25 million shots per month.

Walgreens also said recently it plans to roll out vaccines in nursing homes to the bulk of states Monday. Both chains have started vaccinations at select nursing homes in about a dozen other states last week.

The plan is for the pharmacy to eventually visit 35,000 facilities and vaccinate 3 million residents. CVS and other companies are also part of the partnership to deliver shots at nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

The Indiana State Department of Health would provide an update in the next few weeks, Chief Medical Officer Lindsay Weaver told reporters Tuesday.

Indiana has seen at least 17,000 cases in nursing homes and longterm care facilities, with 3,547 deaths, or about half of Indiana’s confirmed and suspected COVID deaths, outpacing the U.S. average.

The nation is setting records for coronavirus cases heading into cold weather season when many experts expect the virus will be harder to contain. The seven-day rolling average for daily new cases stood at nearly 104,000 on Saturday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Nursing homes and other longterm care facilities account for about 1% of the U.S. population, but represent 40% of COVID-19 deaths, according to the COVID Tracking Project.