BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) – Nursing homes and assisted living facilities have not received the COVID-19 vaccine from New York State.
Governor Cuomo previously announced that nursing homes and health care workers were eligible to receive the first doses of the vaccine. Several Western New York hospitals have already received the vaccine and administered it to health care workers.
A press release from the governor's office from last week said nursing homes would receive the vaccine could arrive this week.
"Most of the information we got was that we would be first in line," Chris Koenig, President and CEO of The Greenfields, said. "It's, I guess, a little interesting to hear that there's been rollout across the state and we haven't had word on when we're getting it. We're still waiting."
The governor announced earlier this month that state nursing homes would receive their vaccines through the federal government's partnership with Walgreens and CVS.
The vaccines could still arrive this week, though the program that allows nursing home residents to be vaccinated does not begin until next Monday. Under the federal program, employees at CVS and Walgreens will administer the vaccine to nursing home residents and staff.
The Greenfields and The McGuire Group are among the local nursing homes that have partnered with Walgreens to receive the vaccine.
"We do not have definitive dates from Walgreens as to when we'll be receiving the vaccine," Sue Grigg, COO at The McGuire Group, said.
However, Grigg said there will be a vaccination clinic for residents and some staffers sometime next week.
Nursing homes residents are among the hardest hit populations due to their age and diminishing health. More than 500 nursing home residents have died in Western New York and thousands more have died across the state.
Assisted living facilities, like Bristol Homes, are not expecting to receive the vaccine after nursing homes, according to its president, Mike Helbringer.
"What I'm hearing now is what has arrived in the state is really enough for the frontline workers and for nursing homes," Helbringer said. "We'll sort of be in that second phase or 1-B phase, which may be early January, but nothing specific to that point has been shared."
Even though nursing homes do not have the vaccines yet, there is still an optimism from administrators that the end of the pandemic is near.
"We're ready to get back to some semblance of life as normal," Koenig said. "We're ready to get our patients and residents back to doing what they were doing before: Interacting with their families, friends, and volunteers. That's the biggest thing on our mind right now is doing what we need to do so that the residents we care for can get back to normal. They're not living life like everyone else."
Visitors to state nursing homes are limited to nursing homes that have been without a case of COVID-19 for at least two weeks. Officials are not sure when visitation will be allowed again at nursing homes.
"We would really need to wait for guidance from New York State on that," Grigg said.
Grigg said the plan is to give the first dose of the vaccine to a third of their staff. Then when the next batch arrives, another third of the staff will receive their first dose while the first group that received the vaccine will get the second. Because there is a three-week wait between doses, it could take several weeks for the nursing homes to be fully ready for a return to normal.
"I'm hoping we can gradually get back to normal," Helbringer said. "My understanding is the general public, everything I'm reading is by the second quarter of 2021, they feel everyone that wants the vaccine will have gotten up. Hopefully summer? I'm hoping."
Koenig said he's hearing it won't be until April that there will be enough people with a vaccine.
