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Assisted living faces a similar threat, but is a lower priority for the vaccine.
• 7 min read
Biden unveils national COVID-19 strategy: masks, testing, accelerated vaccine rollout
President Joe Biden called for expanded COVID-19 testing, accelerated vaccine distribution and preparation for possible future pandemics. Biden called the COVID-19 response “a wartime undertaking.”Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images
As the COVID-19 vaccine rollout reaches residents of nursing homes across the country, long-term care advocates remain concerned that many of the nation s most vulnerable citizens who are living in similar, high-risk congregate settings are being left to wait.
CVS and Walgreens vaccine rollout plagued with miscommunication and paperwork
FILE - This Friday, Oct. 21, 2016, file photo shows a CVS drugstore and pharmacy location in Philadelphia. On Monday, Jan. 15, 2018, CVS said it will stop significant touchups of images used in its advertising for beauty products. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) Matt Rourke
Published: 1/21/2021 3:23:44 PM
As the pandemic continues its deadly creep into the long-term care facilities, the state reported 46 ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks at nursing homes last week.
Hundreds of deaths – 718 and counting – have been traced back to these facilities since the start of the pandemic. In the last seven days alone, 54 people associated with long-term care facilities in New Hampshire have died from COVID-19. Meanwhile, CVS and Walgreens, which have been contracted by the federal government to manage the vaccinations of nursing homes, have administered vaccines markedly slower than hospitals in the state.
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Karen has spent the better part of her life as the chief caretaker for her sister, Erica Cunningham, who lives at Lafayette Center, a nursing home in Franconia. Erica has schizophrenia, and she’s spent most of her life in institutional care.
“It’s been a very long road,” said Jamie Cunningham, Karen and Erica’s brother. “Try and imagine being stuck in a room since the beginning of this pandemic, not being able to get outside of a room. And for someone who knows confinement, to have that even more intense, she has done incredibly well.”
By JOSIE ALBERTSON-GROVE | The New Hampshire Union Leader, Manchester | Published: January 2, 2021
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See other free reports here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. (Tribune News Service) Emergency medical technicians and military members whose training has equipped them for work in nursing homes can work in long-term care facilities with temporary licenses, after Gov. Chris Sununu signed an emergency order Thursday. Military members with certain specialty codes indicating medical training, who have used that training in the last three years, can apply for temporary nursing assistant licenses through the state Board of Nursing. Emergency medical technicians can apply for temporary nursing assistant licenses, too.