December 15, 2020
The topic on everyone’s mind is the COVID-19 vaccination.
All of us look ahead to obtaining vaccinations to fight the virus. We have learned that all our communities have been approved for vaccinations distributed through CVS Pharmacy. JAA is on a priority list to receive these vaccinations when they are available for distribution. We do not yet have confirmation of a time or date, but are happy to report there seems to be light at the end of this very long tunnel.
Hospitals and long-term care communities like ours are anticipated to be among the first scheduled to receive the vaccine. Guidance and some details have come to us from the PA Department of Health and the CDC regarding distribution of the vaccines. Our CVS Pharmacy Partner has yet to provide details regarding numbers of doses, how, or when they will be administered.
There are two companies with vaccines ready for use, one produced by Pfizer/BioNTech, which is FDA approved and now available in the market, and one by Moderna.
Decisions regarding which of the two vaccine types will be allocated to long-term care facilities are made on a regional level. Sources including our local Regional Response Health Collaboration Program believe long-term care facilities in western PA would most likely receive the Moderna vaccine. Once approved, the Moderna vaccine could be arriving during the next few weeks. With this in mind, JAA could begin administering the vaccines in early January. There is a two-dose minimum with the Moderna vaccine that would occur 28 days apart.
JAA will not be receiving doses of the vaccine directly, but rather CVS will inform us as to the number of doses that have been allocated to us. Our priority will be to first inoculate JAA residents and employees. CVS will only be authorized to vaccinate JAA employees and residents. Since private duty caregivers are not JAA employees, they will not be eligible to receive vaccines through the CVS initiative. All private duty caregivers will need to contact their primary care physicians or health care providers to determine when the vaccine will be eligible for them to receive.
As more information about the vaccinations becomes available, we will post it here.