Under pressure to speed up vaccinations, states are holding back or redirecting doses earmarked for long-term care facilities. Some states trying to stretch their limited supply of coronavirus vaccines are planning to reroute doses earmarked for nursing homes, as they face mounting pressure to get shots into arms more quickly.
The states say tens of thousands of coronavirus shots designated for nursing homes and other long-term care facilities through a federal program are going unused, while health officials are speeding through the weekly supply of vaccines for the broader public after vastly expanding eligibility for the shots.
States including Maine, Michigan, Minnesota and Oklahoma are now insisting they must reclaim a portion of shots meant for the long-term care facilities or refuse allotting doses to them until they use up more supply. “We are stressing to our districts to get vaccine moved from freezer to Oklahomans, preferably within a seven-day time period,” said Keith Reed, deputy commissioner of Oklahoma’s health department. “And this vaccine is really just sitting right now.”
Every state but West Virginia joined a federal nursing home vaccination program the Trump administration created to ensure protection for a population that’s particularly susceptible to the coronavirus. Some states have complained about the pace of that program, even though the retail pharmacy giants providing the shots — CVS and Walgreens — reported Monday they had met their goal of finishing the first round of vaccinations in nursing homes.
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