New York State nursing home residents and staff will start receiving the COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, December 21, Gareth Rhodes, an advisor to Governor Andrew Cuomo, confirmed.

Trained staff for CVS, Walgreens, and certain consultant pharmacies approved by the federal government will begin entering nursing homes throughout the state next week to administer that first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Stephen Hanse, president of the New York State Health Facilities Association, said these vaccines have given them renewed hope that the state is close to rounding the corner in this pandemic.

“This was the key element to defeat this virus." Hanse said. "And now that we have the vaccination in place, it truly is the light at the end of the tunnel and will go a long way to eradicating the COVID-19 virus."

By the end of the month, Hanse expects that all 618 long term care facilities enrolled in the federal vaccine distribution program, will have received this first vaccine dose.

Each facility had to choose a pharmacy and set up dates for three separate visits to nursing homes throughout New York.

For the first visit, nursing home residents and staff will receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. On the second visit, which will be approximately three weeks later in January, pharmacists will administer the second inoculation.

Then in February, the third visit will be to make sure everyone has received the vaccine and to catch up on anyone who might have been missed in the first two rounds.

“We’re optimistic that within the first quarter of 2021, all our residents and staff will receive the COVID-19 vaccination,” Hanse said.

Nursing home facilities have also had to secure consent from families of nursing home residents, but Hanse said they have yet to run into any problems or encountered a resident who does not wish to take the vaccine.

“A majority of our residents and staff want to be inoculated, which is great news,” Hanse said.

Nursing homes and long care facilities in New York were hit particularly hard during the COVID-19 pandemic and are now once again facing a surge in cases.

Bill Hammond, a health care policy researcher at the Empire Center, says during a  five-week period from October 25 to November 29, nursing home residents accounted for 26% of all COVID-19 deaths statewide, despite making up less than  percent% of the population.

For example, in his report Hammond said that in Tioga County, all of its 23 deaths in that one month perioid, occured in two nursing home facilities, River View and Elderwood. 

"The nursing homes are bearing the brunt of this autumn wave," Hammond said. "The number of people dying is really disproportionately high in the nursing homes because they are very vulnerable."

The nursing homes hardest hit right now are upstate facilities.

Hammond said despite tough restrictions, community spread is still making its way into these homes.  

"You can’t fully protect nursing home residents until the infection rate in the community at large is reduced or eliminated," Hammond explained. "Like everyone else we are all looking forward to the vaccine and when we do achieve immunity as a population, that's when you should see the situation in nursing homes finally stop."

According to the State Health Department, around 6,500 nursing home residents died from COVID-19 since March, but they do not include the number of residents who died after they were taken to the hospital for emergency care.

Health experts estimate that the actual number of residents who have died from COVID-19 to be almost double the state’s tally.