Vaccinations At MD Long-Term Care Facilities Begin

MARYLAND — As some of the first COVID-19 vaccines are administered to Maryland nursing home residents and staff Wednesday, Gov. Larry Hogan will be in attendance.

Every nursing home and assisted living facility in Maryland has been signed up by state health officials to receive vaccinations for the coronavirus from CVS and Walgreens through a federal program handled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

According to the CDC, older adults and those with underlying health conditions are more vulnerable to complications from the virus.

While congregate living facilities like nursing homes account for about 9 percent of Maryland's coronavirus cases, they make up nearly 49 percent of the death toll from the virus in Maryland, based on Tuesday's state health data.

In Maryland, officials say more than 2,600 people in nursing homes, group homes and assisted living facilities have died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. State health data shows 5,353 Marylanders have died from COVD-19 as of Tuesday.

Congregate living facilities account for 23,325 cases of the virus in the state, which has 255,397 cases as of Tuesday, Dec. 22.

"With vaccine distribution now beginning in our state, we have finally reached a turning point, and we are able to see the sun rising on the horizon," Hogan said at a news conference last week after the first handful of people were vaccinated in the state.

The Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19 was delivered to Maryland Dec. 14 and began with front-line workers in hospitals.

Maryland has an initial allocation of about 155,000 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, dedicated to health care workers, nursing home residents and staff and first responders.

CVS Health started vaccination clinics Monday at long-term care facilities, where staff and residents were prioritized to receive the vaccine.

To show support for the state's most vulnerable population and the staff caring for these individuals, Hogan will visit Franklin Woods Center in Baltimore County on Wednesday. The facility, which is run by Genesis HealthCare, anticipates residents and staff will begin to get vaccinated at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 23.

CVS plans to administer the first Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses in facilities within the following 12 states during the week of Dec. 21: Maryland, Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon and Vermont.

Vaccinations in 36 more states, including Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia, will begin on Dec. 28. Puerto Rico's vaccinations will start on Jan. 4.

"I want to assure the people of Maryland that we will get through this together, and that every single day as we vaccinate more and more people and as we continue to fight this virus with everything we’ve got," Hogan said, "it will bring us much closer to that victory over this deadly virus."

See Also:

• 95-Year-Old WWII Vet Gets Vaccine At Loch Raven VA Medical Center
• Moderna Begins Shipping 100K COVID-19 Vaccines To Maryland
• 5 Health-Care Workers In Maryland Receive COVID-19 Vaccine

Patch editor Emily Leayman contributed to this report.