Many long-term care facilities in North Texas will start to receive doses of COVID-19 vaccinations Monday.
And even for facilities that aren't slated to receive doses this week, like Midlothian Healthcare Center, hope is on the horizon.
“We’re looking forward to the vaccine coming. Things are a lot more stable for us right now. We’ve gotten the majority of our residents recovered,” said Greg Loudermilk, the owner and administrator at Midlothian Healthcare Center.
In mid-November, the facility had a major COVID-19 outbreak, with about half the residents and half of its staff members contracting the virus, Loudermilk told NBC 5 in early December.
He said to get the vaccine for his facility, he had to register with the Texas Department of State Health Services.
In Texas, more than 3,200 facilities have enrolled in a federal program to vaccinate residents and staff at long-term care facilities, totaling more than 225,000 beds, according to a press release from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) office
"We believe they’ll just send the doses to us, and we’ll administer them ourselves,” Loudermilk said.
The facility’s nurses will vaccinate all residents and staff.
“The ones I’ve talked to are looking forward to it. I believe most people will feel it’s advantageous for elderly people to take it as soon as they can,” Loudermilk said.
CVS and Walgreens have partnered with the federal government to vaccinate 7 million people in more than 70,000 long-term care facilities across the country.
The pharmacy giants are preparing for teams to go into nursing homes and long-term care facilities starting Monday.
*Map locations are approximate, central locations for the city and are not meant to indicate where actual infected people live.
