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The company announced that its teams will begin administering the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines produced by Pfizer across 40,000 facilities in 12 states as soon as this week.
Walgreens and other pharmacies are also involved in the federal nursing home vaccination program.
“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," Larry Merlo, the President and Chief Executive Officer of CVS Health said.
"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.”
According to Merlo, teams will make three visits to long-term care facilities to ensure that the residents and staff members receive the first dose of the vaccination. They will then return approximately three weeks later to administer the second dose, which should fully vaccinate the residents and staffers.
The vaccinations are expected to start this week in Connecticut, New York, Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Vermont. Later this month, vaccinations will begin in 36 other states.
On Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that the state would be teaming up with pharmacies to administer the vaccine in nursing homes across the state, with more than 600 nursing homes opting into the program.
“We’re working with the pharmacies, and so far 618 nursing homes are enrolled in the program, and (the number of vaccines provided) is based proportionately to how many nursing homes are in that region,” he said. “Our goal is to do this better than any other state.”
So far, New York has administered 38,000 COVID-19 vaccines, more than double any other state, ahead of Texas (15,352), Colorado (12,123), Louisiana (7,000), and Massachusetts (6,200).
“Vaccinating one of our most vulnerable populations is the latest milestone in our multifaceted pandemic response, which includes testing more than 10 million people for the virus since March," Karen Lynch, the future President and CEO of Aetna said. "The eventual availability of COVID-19 vaccines in communities across the country will bring us one step closer to overcoming the most significant health challenge of our lifetime."
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