Vaccinations among nursing home residents and staff against COVID-19 is moving slowly in Louisiana. State Health Officer Dr. Joe Kanter says 28,000 have been administered so far, just over 19,000 to residents and almost 9,000 to staff. Kanter says we all wish it was going faster but…
“I am encouraged that the uptick rate amongst nursing home residents so far is about 69-percent, which is fairly encouraging, the uptake on the staff is lower, it’s at about 26%,” said Kanter.
The vaccine rollout in nursing homes is being conducted by CVS and Walgreens. Kanter says they have made one of the three visits to facilities. On the second visit, they will administer the second dose for those from the first visit and the first dose for those that missed the first visit, and then the third visit for the second shots from the second visit.
Kanter feels the 26% of staff being vaccinated will go up once the rollout conducts their second visit to facilities.”
“We believe a lot more staff are going to take part and get that second dose when it comes, so I’m actually optimistic that staff number goes up a little bit,” said Kanter.
Governor Edwards says he’s seen vaccinations among staff almost double on the second visit at Veteran’s Homes and feels that will happen in private nursing homes as well.
Kanter, say 93,600 Moderna vaccine doses have been allocated to the nursing home vacine program and so far only 30-percent of the shots have been administered.
“All and all the program is going well in terms of its getting good reviews when we hear from nursing homes who have been visited and a majority of them have been visited at this point, they like the program and the residents like it, we all wish it was going faster,” said Kanter.
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