The Covid-19 vaccination program will start Monday in assisted living facilities, but the operator of a Lockport facility says that's too late to prevent an outbreak that started among his residents last week.
"If I were part of a priority list that started on Dec. 21 along with nursing homes, who knows? If my staff and residents were vaccinated – there's some type of immunity after the first (dose of) vaccine – this may not have occurred," Mark C. Ferreri of Briarwood Manor said Friday.
Ferreri said 24 of his 95 residents, along with five staffers, had tested positive for the virus since Wednesday. He said residents were tested after the staffers showed symptoms first.
"We should have been included, because the population this affects most is the seniors," Ferreri said.
He said assisted living facilities often have been left behind nursing homes during the pandemic, with one example being lack of access to allocations of personal protective equipment.
"We're a residential facility that can't manage chronic conditions and infectious conditions. We're not geared for that," Ferreri said. "We're still treating a population that can have bad outcomes, and that should have been a priority."
He said he's been told by CVS, one of two drugstore chains handling the vaccinations at long-term care facilities, that Briarwood Manor is on their schedule, but not until Jan. 27.
The scheduling of shots at assisted living facilities has been spotty.
Charles Hayes, spokesman for the Elderwood chain of nursing homes and assisted living facilities, said Friday that no vaccinations have been scheduled yet at any of its assisted living sites.
But Ray Geiser, administrator of Heritage Manor of Lockport, said Walgreens workers are scheduled to vaccinate his 26-bed facility's residents and employees on Friday.
There are some Covid-19 positives at Heritage Manor, but Geiser wouldn't say how many. Heritage Manor also has 28 seniors in independent living apartments, but he doesn't know whether they will be vaccinated.
"The federal program starts on Monday for adult care facilities, and we are working with all parties involved, including pharmacies, to expedite vaccination," the state Department lf Health said in a statement last week to The Buffalo News.
"There are some facilities that don't have dates until March," Ferreri said. "There are some facilities that don't have dates at all."
He said he's heard of cases where vaccinations were not done at assisted living facilities located right next to nursing homes with the same owner.
Assisted living facilities were left out of Phase 1A of New York's vaccine distribution program, which included nursing homes. Assisted living is not specifically included in Phase 1B either, although the state's list for that phase includes everyone 75 and older.
Ferreri said New York could have set other priorities. For example, Florida decided to vaccinate everyone over age 65: 4.4 million people, far more than the number of vaccine doses available in Florida so far. The result last week was elderly people waiting in long lines, sometimes overnight, in hopes of obtaining shots.
"I'm very happy at this point that we have clinics set up now for most of our members," said Lisa Newcomb, executive director of the Empire State Association of Assisted Living.
"Of course we wanted the vaccine the very first day it was available," Newcomb said. "At the same time, we know there were supply issues. The incidence of positive cases and deaths was significantly higher in nursing homes."
She also said assisted living workers are allowed to go to local hospitals or county-run sites to be vaccinated ahead of the general public, especially if their facility is well down the schedule for shots from the CVS or Walgreens crews.
But Ferreri said assisted living staff wasn't allowed to access those sites until last Monday.
