MISSOURI, USA — CVS Health will begin administering COVID-19 vaccines at hundreds of Missouri long-term care facilities next week.
Nearly 600 Missouri skilled nursing and assisted living facilities partnered with CVS Health to receive the vaccines starting Dec. 28, according to a news release emailed Monday by CVS Health. The health care company has already begun vaccinations at more than 40,000 long-term care facilities in select states.
The U.S. Department of Health and Senior Services previously announced it had selected CVS Health and Walgreens to administer the vaccinations with no out-of-pocket costs.
"Our army of healthcare professionals — pharmacists, nurses and licensed pharmacy technicians — are very familiar with this patient population," CVS Health said in the release. "This expertise, along with our national scale and local presence which we have used to administer flu vaccinations and to mobilize COVID-19 testing solutions in communities across the country, will be applied to this national effort to safely and efficiently distribute COVID-19 vaccines."
The company expects to vaccinate up to 4 million residents and staff members across 40,000 U.S. long-term care facilities. CVS Pharmacy teams will make three visits to each facility to ensure both initial shots and booster shots are received. Most staff and residents will be fully vaccinated three to four weeks after the first visit, depending on what vaccine they receive, CVS Health said.
It expects to complete the vaccination effort in about 12 weeks.
The company will eventually provide vaccines to the general public at its CVS Pharmacy locations in 2021. It plans to be able to give 20-25 million shots per month. More details will come at a later date.
To learn more about CVS Health's vaccine and testing resources, visit its COVID-19 resource center.