CVS To Begin Vaccinations At Virginia Long-Term Care Facilities

VIRGINIA — CVS Health, a partner chosen to vaccinate long-term care facility residents, plans to begin administering COVID-19 vaccines in 874 Virginia facilities on Dec. 28.

CVS Pharmacy was selected by many nursing homes and assisted living facilities nationwide to be their vaccine provider. It is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's program offering COVID-19 vaccination services for residents of long-term care facilities. CVS, Walgreens, and Managed Health Care Associates are the partners in the national program.

CVS announced it will administer the first Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses in facilities within 12 states during the week of Dec. 21: Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Vermont. Vaccinations in 36 more states, including Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia, will begin on Dec. 28. Puerto Rico's vaccinations will start on Jan. 4.

"Today’s rollout is the culmination of months of internal planning and demonstrates how the private sector can use its expertise to help solve some of our most critical challenges," said CVS Health President and CEO Larry J. Merlo. "I’m grateful for the herculean efforts of everyone involved, including our health care professionals who will be deployed throughout the country to bring peace of mind to long-term care facility residents, staff, and their loved ones."

The company expects it will vaccinate up to 4 million residents and staff at over 40,000 long-term care facilities during its program. CVS Pharmacy staff will make three visits to each long-term care facility to ensure residents and staff receive their initial shot and booster. Most residents and staff are expected to be fully vaccinated three to four weeks after the first visit, depending on which vaccine they receive. CVS Health expects the long-term care facility vaccination could be completed in approximately 12 weeks.

"What we'll do is send teams in. They'll have full protective equipment...and [vaccinate] all the people who work in the long-term care facilities as well as all the people who consented to have the vaccinations who are patients there," said Dr. Troy Brennan, executive vice president and chief medical officer at CVS Health. "Then we'll go back again and yet again to do the second dose and to make sure we capture anyone else who has come through the system up to that point."

Vaccinations at long-term care facilities will begin after health care workers in Virginia hospital systems began receiving the first COVID-19 vaccines last week. After emergency use authorization was granted to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the first shipments went to 18 hospitals across the state, with 72,125 doses being dispersed to frontline healthcare workers. Last Friday, the FDA also granted emergency use authorization to Moderna's vaccine, clearing the way for it to be distributed to states. Based on information from Operation Warp Speed, Virginia is expected to receive 370,650 vaccine doses in December from Pfizer and Moderna.

CVS also has an agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to eventually provide vaccines to the public in 2021. This will be subject to vaccine availability and prioritization of populations as determined by states. Once those vaccines become available to the public, CVS will offer them by appointment with the capacity to administer 20 million to 25 million shots per month. The company plans to share more details at a later time.

"There isn't an exact date yet because we have to work through those prioritization of front-line health care workers, the elderly as well as critical infrastructure," said Dr. Sree Chaguturu, senior vice president and chief medical officer at CVS Caremark. "The timing of when that program starts will likely be later in the winter or in early spring. As the next few months progress, we'll be able to announce when that program starts in conjunction with Health and Human Services for general population vaccinations."

Virginia coronavirus update

With vaccinations underway for the first priority groups in Virginia, new coronavirus case and current hospitalization trends remain higher than previous months of the pandemic. On Tuesday, 3,591 new cases were reported statewide, bringing the seven-day average of daily cases to 3,739. Northern Virginia accounted for 902 of Tuesday's new cases and has a seven-day average of 980 daily cases, according to Virginia Department of Health data.

The statewide positive average of PCR tests is 11.4 percent as of Dec. 19, while Northern Virginia's average is 11.1 percent. The latest seven-day average of daily tests being reported is 27,834 statewide and 7,426 in Northern Virginia only.

Hospitalizations continue to reach new highs. As of Tuesday, there are 2,508 current COVID-19 patients in Virginia hospitals. Of these, 535 are in the intensive care units and 279 are on ventilators.

According to the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association, ventilator use among all hospital patients is at 32 percent capacity, with 987 of the 3,036 available in use. ICU occupancy is at 80 percent, while the 2019 ICU occupancy average was 67 percent. There have been no hospitals reporting difficulty obtaining personal protective equipment within 72 hours since Sept. 18.

There were 51 new deaths reported on Tuesday in Virginia, and the seven-day average of daily death reports is 34. The cumulative totals stand at 314,481 cases, 17,083 hospitalizations, and 4,705 deaths.

Below are the latest coronavirus data updates for our coverage area from Monday to Tuesday:

• Alexandria: 6,782 cases, 418 hospitalizations, 84 deaths; increase of 65 cases, five hospitalizations and one death
• Arlington County: 8,121 cases, 636 hospitalizations, 169 deaths; increase of 67 cases and two hospitalizations
• Fairfax County: 40,483 cases, 2,805 hospitalizations, 660 deaths; increase of 362 cases, 25 hospitalizations and six deaths
• Fairfax City: 281 cases, 24 hospitalizations, 10 deaths; increase of four cases
• Falls Church: 157 cases, 16 hospitalizations, six deaths; increase of four cases
• Loudoun County: 12,925 cases, 628 hospitalizations, 154 deaths; increase of 64 cases and seven hospitalizations, one death removed
• Manassas: 2,708 cases, 147 hospitalizations, 29 deaths; increase of 20 cases and two hospitalizations
• Manassas Park: 869 cases, 62 hospitalizations, eight deaths; increase of nine cases
• Prince William County: 23,041 cases, 1,180 hospitalizations, 247 deaths; increase of 307 cases and one hospitalization
• Fredericksburg: 941 cases, 63 hospitalizations, eight deaths; increase of nine cases and one hospitalization
• Spotsylvania County: 4,171 cases, 202 hospitalizations, 67 deaths; increase of 50 cases, one hospitalization and one death
• Stafford County: 4,578 cases, 219 hospitalizations, 23 deaths; increase of 58 cases and one hospitalization