Bringing protection to the most vulnerable
Vaccine rollout for congregate-care facility workers, patients begins in N.M.
The next ripple in the COVID-19 vaccination plan brought a tidal wave of relief Monday at a downtown Santa Fe retirement community.
Some residents and staff at El Castillo Life Plan Community were among the first congregate-care residents in the city to receive vaccines Monday, a long-awaited event for those who’d been locked down for much of the year.
El Castillo CEO and administrator Al Jahner said 30 residents of its health center plus 100 staff members received the first round of the Moderna vaccine as the state began to roll out the medication. Last week, health care workers around the state began receiving the first of two rounds of inoculations.
“From our standpoint, we’re obviously very happy,” Jahner said. “The whole quarantine thing and lockdown is getting really, really old.”
Over the weekend, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced pharmacy staff members at CVS, Walgreens and Vida would begin administering 15,000 of an expected 31,000 Moderna vaccines to long-term care staff and residents. The rollout began Sunday at La Vida Llena retirement community in Albuquerque and Casa Del Sol Center, a senior care nursing facility in Las Cruces.
El Castillo was scheduled in the second batch of nursing homes, alongside five other facilities. Vaccinations are expected to continue at similar facilities across the state until Jan. 25, according to a schedule provided by the state Aging and Long-Term Services Department, which said Casa Rael is next local facility scheduled to receive vaccinations Jan. 2.
The vaccine consists of two shots 28 days apart. According to the El Castillo, a second round of shots for individuals inoculated Monday is scheduled for an unspecified date in January.
The coronavirus has been particularly devastating in long-term care facilities across the nation and New Mexico. According to the Aging and Long-Term Services Department, 3,591 long term care residents have
been infected with the virus and as of Christmas Day, 638 have died — more than 25 percent of the New Mexico’s COVID-related fatalities.
“This disease has devastating results for residents living in congregate settings like nursing homes and assisted living facilities where asymptomatic cases can rapidly spread making this virus incredibly difficult to contain,” Aging and Long-Term Services Department Secretary Katrina Hotrum-Lopez said during a Zoom news conference Sunday.
Hotrum-Lopez added residents at long-term care facilities often have been “victims” of community members failing to follow mask guidelines and stay-at-home orders.
“They have been the casualty of what the community has been doing: not wearing their masks, having large gatherings, that keep our numbers in red,” she said.
According to the state Department of Health, while the vaccine does provide a layer of immunity by protecting recipients from developing symptoms or contracting the virus, inoculated individuals can still transmit the virus.
In the draft plan for the vaccine’s rollout, front-line medical workers, and employees and residents at congregate-care facilities were prioritized for the first phase of the vaccine.
Many health care workers received the first round of Pfizer’s vaccine on Dec. 14, with staff at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center among the first in the state inoculated.
Other essential employees, including law enforcement, the National Guard and teachers are expected to follow when supplies become available.
The general public, according to the Centers for Disease Control, is not expected to receive the vaccine until mid-2021, when states are expected to get more shipments.
The state does not expect to have enough vaccines to move beyond the first phase until some time in 2021.