-->

Coping with COVID: Missouri, Kansas nursing homes to see COVID-19 vaccine beginning today

Hundreds of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities across Missouri and Kansas will see their first shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine Monday. Residents and staff at over 900 facilities will receive the vaccine through a partnership with CVS Health.

Thousands of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are on their way to nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Kansas and Missouri today.

U.S. health officials have said they are focused on getting the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna to people in nursing homes and similar facilities across the country. They are using CVS and Walgreen’s to make that happen.

The pharmacy companies will set up pop-up vaccination clinics in the homes they have partnerships with. The shot will come to many facilities in Kansas and Missouri as soon as Monday.

CVS is the main company most of these facilities have partnered with. CVS says it has contracts with 600 facilities in Missouri and 300 in Kansas.

Many senior living administrators told KCTV5 News they were unsure of the exact timing of the vaccine distribution, but that they are prepared for their turn when it comes while working on getting consent from residents and their families.

Walgreen’s says it can administer three million doses over the next three months.

Health officials have said people who are 65 years old or older and not living in a close-contact community will have to wait until the next wave of vaccinations. Officials estimate that will be at least a month, possibly two.

The COVID-19 vaccines are not available to the public in pharmacies right now. CVS says that whenever it is, it will be by appointment only.