COVID-19 vaccines have reached long-term care facilities in New Hampshire and are beginning to be launched, following some concern about minimal communication and scheduling issues.
Long-term care facilities receive their vaccines through a federal partnership with CVS and Walgreens. New Hampshire nursing homes have been particularly hard hit, with 79% of state deaths occurring in long-term care facilities, the highest rate in the country.
The New Hampshire veterans’ home in Tilton, an active outbreak site, which recently saw a drop in active cases and 36 deaths in total, said it will begin inoculating people Wednesday.
Woodlawn Care Center offered residents and staff the first doses on Tuesday. The Newport Nursing Home was the site of a recently closed COVID-19 outbreak, where 33 residents and 24 employees tested positive and four people died.
Administrator Chris Martin called the arrival of the vaccine “a breath of fresh air.”
“I realize it won’t allow us to start a penny or make life back to normal here, but it’s nice to know that at least we won’t have an outbreak that will sweep away 80 percent of the population and a third of the staff.” he said.
Martin said almost every resident wants to be immunized, but only about 60 percent of staff have done so. Other facilities say they are noticing similar trends, probably due to misinformation about side effects online and hesitation about a new vaccine.
“There are some real conspiracy theories … things that have been dismantled, such as causing infertility problems that have been dismantled,” he said. “Some people were a little scared because of the new strain in England.”
More employees will be vaccinated when a new clinic is held later next month, Martin said.
According to the New Hampshire Health Care Association, almost all long-term care institutions in the state have contacted their pharmacy partner. But some say they are still waiting for official confirmation of the clinic’s data.
Health officials said this week that they hope to have 100,000 of the highest-risk people in the state immunized with at least the first dose by the end of January.