POMPANO BEACH, Florida (AP) – The first COVID-19 vaccines are underway in U.S. nursing homes, where the virus has killed more than 110,000 people, though the nation struggles to contain such a wave alarming that it has spurred California to dispense thousands. of bodywork bags and alignment of refrigerated trucks for corpses.
With the launch of shots rising on Wednesday, Washington lawmakers closed a long-standing coronavirus relief package that would send direct payments of perhaps $ 600 to most Americans. Meanwhile, the United States seemed to be just days away from adding a second vaccine to its arsenal.
At the same time, a major snowstorm heading in from the northeast worried it could alter the distribution of the first vaccine.
Residents of nursing homes in Florida began receiving shots Wednesday, after nearly 2,000 such vaccines were administered in West Virginia on Tuesday. Thousands more are scheduled in the coming days. Other states are expected to follow soon.
The elderly and people with long-term care illnesses have been among the most vulnerable to the virus and, together with health workers, are the first to achieve the initial and limited supply of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and the German BioNTech. . Residents and nursing home workers account for more than a third of the nation’s 300,000 confirmed deaths from COVID-19.
In Florida, the long-time retirement shelter, with 141,000 residents in nursing homes, the second of all states behind California, the urge to receive the vaccine was mixed with some anxiety.
“I hope it helps me get COVID,” said Vera Leip, an 88-year-old retired teacher who lives in the village of John Knox near Fort Lauderdale. “I don’t know anything about it, but I’d rather not have one.”
The home does not require its employees to receive the vaccine and only 80 of the 200 employees at the specialty nursing facility volunteered for the first wave, said Mark Rayner, its director of health services. He said many of those who reject the shooting are African American and do not trust it, given the nation’s history of black medical experimentation.
“They’re scared,” he said. “There’s this cultural line even as much as we educate them.”
West Virginia, with one of the oldest and healthiest populations in America, works with small, local pharmacies to reach nursing homes across the heavily rural state, states that rely on an association with CVS pharmacy chains and Walgreens to kick off any day now.
Marty Wright, head of the West Virginia Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes and assisted living communities, said state pharmacies expect to get 7,000 doses of guns over the weekend .
The news comes as the crisis grows more serious by many measures.
The United States on Tuesday recorded more than 3,000 deaths for the third time in less than a week, eclipsing the peaks seen last spring. New cases exceed 212,000 daily on average. And the number of Americans in the hospital with COVID-19 reached another all-time high on Tuesday of about 113,000.
California distributes 5,000 bodywork bags primarily in the highly successful areas of Los Angeles and San Diego and has 60 refrigerated trailers on the side as makeshift Moors. The state averages 163 virus deaths per day, up from 63 just two weeks ago. On Wednesday it recorded about 300.
California officials also reported 53,711 new cases of the virus on Wednesday, the same as the U.S. average in mid-October, before the fall of the fall. Many California hospitals run out of space in intensive care units.
In Fresno County, officials said Tuesday that only 16 ICU beds remained available and were filling up quickly. To keep up, the county hospital system has hired a Virginia company to supply doctors, nurses and others to the staff of a temporary 50-bed facility that will begin receiving patients over the weekend.
“Unfortunately, I am expected to smile seven weeks before and after the new year, just considering the trends we see with the number of cases,” said Dr. Rais Vohra, the county’s interim public health manager.
In Orange County, health officials planned to send large tents to four hospitals to help accommodate patients.
Bruce Barton, director of EMS in Riverside County, said a couple of hospitals reached capacity last week and local officials had to step in to take some bodies.
Hospitals are also under pressure in Arizona, where 92% of beds are registered, nearly half with people with COVID-19.
“This is an amazing statistic when you think about the things that can affect people,” said Dr. Joshua LaBaer, executive director of the Arizona State University Institute of Biodiesign. “And it certainly means that hospitals right now have to make decisions about how to keep people out of the hospital to keep the beds available for COVID patients.”
In the country’s capital, congressional leaders said they hoped to seal an agreement as early as Wednesday on a package that would extend aid to individuals and businesses and help send vaccines to millions. It would include improved federal unemployment benefits and another round of stimulus controls.
On Thursday, a government advisory committee will study whether to approve the emergency use of a second vaccine, made by Moderna.
Meanwhile, officials overseeing the distribution of the first vaccine said they did not expect the winter storm to disrupt distribution.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said the government accurately tracks vaccine shipments, has staff to receive them, and believes the companies that transport them, FedEx and UPS, have the experience needed to navigate the storm.
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Associated Press Cuneyt Dil writers in Charleston, West Virginia, Olga R. Rodriguez in Fresno, California, Bob Christie in Phoenix, and Andrew Taylor in Washington contributed to this story.