Florida takes over vaccinating long-term care facilities from CVS, Walgreens - WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando

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ORLANDO, Fla. – After nearly three weeks of vaccinating residents and staff at Florida long-term care facilities, CVS and Walgreens will no longer be part of those inoculations, according to an update from the state Agency for Health Care Administration.

There are more than 321,000 residents and staff at those facilities across Florida, according to the AHCA. In late December, CVS and Walgreens pharmacies were selected by the federal government to help vaccinate these vulnerable populations. However, beginning Jan. 23 vaccinations at LTCs were taken over by a state-run program.

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According to an update on Jan. 19 shared with facilities in the state, the Florida Division of Emergency Management contracted with CDR Health to vaccinate assisted living facilities that were not scheduled for their initial vaccine clinic with CVS or Walgreens on or before Jan. 23. CDR Health will now take over all vaccination appointments at facilities across the state, according to the AHCA update.

According to AHCA memo sent on Jan. 7, CDR Health was brought in to help the pharmacies with vaccination efforts prior to taking over all appointments.

On Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis said CDR Health was contracted because “time is of the essence” to vaccinate all 4,000 facilities.

Omnicare, a CVS company, said in a statement it is working with the state to transition to this new vaccination effort.

Anyone who already had their first vaccine from CVS Health prior to Jan. 23 will continue with CVS Health, according to Omnicare. If an appointment was scheduled after Jan. 23 CDR Health will be contacting facilities to re-schedule those appointments.

Patty Longamore’s mother is at the Golden Pond long-term care center in Winter Garden. She was scheduled to get her first shot from CVS on Jan. 23 but Longamore learned the appointment had been cancelled.

“What they told is they just found out that CVS wasn’t coming that the governor pulled the allotment for CVS and they didn’t have any vaccines to give out,” she said.

Longamore is unsure when her mother will get vaccinated. She thinks the Florida governor should not have opened up vaccines to more groups before all the assisted-living facilities were taken care of.

“They didn’t prioritize it, they misled us on how they prioritizing the shots , no one should have gotten them until every facility in the state was taken care of, then you can start opening it up and giving shots,” Longamore said.

DeSantis opened up vaccines to people 65 and older in early January. Florida is home to more than 4.5 million people in that age group who do not reside in a long-term care facility.

DeSantis challenged the Department of Health to have all staff and residents at assisted-living centers vaccinated with the first dose in four weeks. On Monday, the governor said the state was close.

“We’ve done over 2,000 assisted living facilities that have at least one vaccinated resident,” DeSantis said.

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Florida takes over vaccinating long-term care facilities from CVS, Walgreens - WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando
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