Race Begins To Get COVID-19 Vaccine To Sherman Oaks Nursing Homes

LOS ANGELES, CA — Nursing homes across Los Angeles began receiving the COVID-19 Moderna vaccine Tuesday as part of a frantic effort to protect the region's most vulnerable residents from the coronavirus.

Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, in partnership with the city of Los Angeles and public health startup Curative deployed the vaccine to 59 facilities Tuesday and with plans to get the vaccine to 339 Skilled Nursing Facilities in Los Angeles County by the end of the week. The Herculean effort stems from the harsh reality that Nursing facilities account for 5% of California's COVID-19 cases but 35% of its deaths, according to officials with the Los Angeles County Joint Information Center. In all, about 69,000 vaccines will be sent to the facilities in the next few days. The mass inoculation effort is made possible by the Food and Drug Administration's recent emergency authorization of the Moderna vaccine, which does not need to be stored at subfreezing temperatures, unlike the Pfizer vaccine.

"Skilled Nursing Facilities have been hit hard by COVID-19, accounting for close to 3,000 deaths," Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said.

A majority of the facilities reported that they do not need assistance receiving and administering the vaccines to staff and residents, but officials will be deploying mobile teams to assist with vaccine education, registration and delivery.

County officials will provide logistics and administrative support for facilities in the county, while the city, led by Garcetti's office and the Los Angeles Fire Department, will provide that support for the facilities within the city.

"Our city's number one responsibility is to preserve the health and safety of our residents -- especially the most vulnerable -- and with the arrival of these vaccines, our first priority must be protecting the folks hardest hit by this pandemic, from healthcare workers to the staff and residents of skilled nursing facilities," Mayor Eric Garcetti said.

"True progress is made through partnerships, and the city is proud to work alongside the county, Curative, CORE and LAFD to first bring free testing to our communities and now to support the effort to vaccinate Angelenos."

Curative, which was founded in Los Angeles, has been one of the city's partners to provide free COVID-19 testing to Los Angeles County residents during the pandemic.

"As we enter this new phase of the pandemic, we're building on everything we learned over the last year at Curative and we look forward to making healthcare more accessible to all: both now and in the future as we evolve as a company," Curative co-founder and CIO Isaac Turner said.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.