Long-term care facilities begin receiving vaccine

SANTA FE — Residents and employees of nursing homes throughout the state are rolling up their sleeves this week as New Mexico expands its COVID-19 vaccine program to some of its most vulnerable adults.

Local pharmacies working with the state began administering vaccines at long-term care facilities Sunday, tapping an initial supply of about 15,000 vaccine doses from Moderna Inc. The state expects to receive about 31,000 vaccines from Moderna overall in coming months.

It marks a significant expansion of the state’s vaccine strategy. About two weeks ago, the first batch of vaccines — from a separate manufacturer, Pfizer Inc. — started going to frontline health care workers and three pueblos.

The shot clinics at nursing homes come after the facilities have been hit hard by the pandemic. Through last week, more than 600 residents of long-term care facilities had died of COVID-19 — about 27% of the state’s overall death toll.

Donald Wilson, executive director of the Village at Northrise in Las Cruces, said the vaccine arrival offers residents fresh hope that life will return to something like normal eventually. About 30 residents and employees at Northrise — where the population includes people with Alzheimer’s and dementia — got the vaccine Monday, with an expanded round of shots scheduled Wednesday.

“We’re still a long way from the finish line,” Wilson said in an interview, “but we can see it — it’s in sight now.”

He was among those getting a shot Monday: “I didn’t feel a thing,” he said afterward.

Walgreens, CVS and a local pharmacy, Vida, are carrying out the vaccines at long-term care facilities. Full protection requires two shots, given four weeks apart.

Katrina Hotrum-Lopez, secretary of the state Aging and Long-Term Services Department, called it a “momentous day for New Mexico.” But she warned that the fight isn’t over.

People who have been vaccinated may still be able to transmit the disease to others, she said Sunday, so masks and social distancing are still necessary.

Vaccination doesn’t mean an immediate return to in-person visits at long-term care facilities. The scale of visitation allowed in nursing homes depends on whether the facility’s home county meets certain statistical targets on disease spread.

Nonetheless, Hotrum-Lopez said, the vaccines represent a breakthrough.

“This disease has devastating results for residents living in congregate settings like nursing homes and assisted living facilities, where asymptomatic cases can rapidly spread,” she said, “making this virus difficult to contain.”

In eastern New Mexico

• Roden-Smith Pharmacy in Clovis said that it will be receiving doses of the Moderna vaccine to administer at longterm care facilities, but when and how many doses has not yet been disclosed to their facility. Walgreens did not have information and reicted inquiries to its corporate offices.

In Portales, representatives with Village Pharmacy were not aware of when they would begin to receive vaccine doses.

• Roosevelt General Hospital has administered an initial vaccination to the majority of front-line staff, according to LaDawna Brooks Chief of diagnostics and therapeutics at RGH.

Brooks said that RGH has been asked by the state to be a community administration site.

“We would ask that individuals register through the state Vaccine Registration System,” she said. “This will allow us to reach the individuals within the federal/state priority groups as we move from 1a to 1b.”

• Plains Regional Medical Center has not responded to an inquiry from The News.

Broader vaccinations

It isn’t clear yet how soon vaccines will be available to the broader public. National estimates range from this spring to the summer or even fall.

New Mexico is expecting to receive a limited supply over the next few months, with the Phase 1 vaccines targeted for specific populations, such as health care workers, tribal communities and long-term care residents.

New Mexicans can pre-register at cv.nmhealth.org to sign up to be notified when the vaccine is available for them.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and members of her Cabinet are not yet scheduled for vaccinations.

Tripp Stelnicki, a spokesman for the governor, said New Mexico “is prioritizing front-line health care workers and long-term care facilities with the product we’ve received so far,” and no time line is set yet for Lujan Grisham’s shot, given the limited supply.

Two members of the governor’s cabinet are physicians — Human Services Secretary David Scrase and Health Secretary-designate Tracie Collins — and may receive vaccinations as health care workers.

Staff writer Lily Martin contributed to this report.