MADISON (WKOW) — Nursing homes house some of the state’s most at-risk populations for COVID-19 infection, and plans have been developing for the last few months about how to distribute vaccines to residents.
“Assuming the state recommendation goes forward, and nursing home residents and staff are high priority, we expect very shortly that a vaccine will be available,” said John Sauer, president and CEO of LeadingAge Wisconsin.
Sauer says the plan is to connect nursing homes directly to pharmacies, who will be the ones handling their vaccines.
“We’re actually very appreciative that that’s the approach that will happen because it takes the nursing facility and the long-term care facility out of trying to figure out the logistics,” he said. “Especially storing the vaccine at -85 degrees, for example.”
The pharmacy plan comes from a federal program hammered out over the last month.
But where the vaccine shipments will start within Wisconsin is still up to the state.
Rick Abrams with the Wisconsin Health Care Association/Wisconsin Center for Assisted Living is hopeful that plan will come out soon.
“We’re looking at 50,000 doses. That is not nearly enough to vaccinate our long-term facility residents and all of our long-term facility employees,” he said. “So there will be some prioritization involved, and that’s what the Medical Disaster Advisory Committee in the state is literally looking at as we speak.”
The big question — will a vaccine mean we can finally see our loved ones in nursing homes in-person again?
Abrams says the vaccine is a big step — but community spread must also be under control, which is still quite a ways off.
“That spread within that contained environment is directly related to the community spread,” he said. “Once that curve is stabilized and begins bending downward, then we’ll start to relax those visitation policies.”
