Gov. Evers Announces DHS Assisted Living Facilities Will Begin Federal Pharmacy Partnership Program to Receive COVID-19 Vaccines

Gov. Tony Evers today announced the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) has officially activated Part B of the Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care Program, which provides COVID-19 vaccinations to Wisconsin assisted living facilities. Assisted living facilities will be hearing directly from pharmacies to plan their vaccination efforts in the coming days. Pharmacies that have completed vaccinations at their nursing homes can begin vaccinating at assisted living facilities immediately.

“Wisconsin has a particularly high number of residents in assisted living facilities and we wanted to be sure that every resident and staff in this program has the opportunity to get vaccinated,” said Gov. Evers. “After careful planning and coordination, our vaccine team was able to successfully reserve enough vaccine doses to launch this program—those efforts will ensure our most vulnerable Wisconsinites are protected against COVID-19.”

The Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care Program is a federal public-private partnership that provides vaccine administration for Wisconsin’s long-term care facilities. CVS and Walgreens pharmacies have been contracted to offer onsite COVID-19 vaccination services to residents and staff of nursing homes and assisted living facilities that participate in this program. Part A of the program, which began with skilled nursing facilities, launched on December 28, 2020. Part B, is set to begin January 25, 2021, and will provide vaccinations to the remaining facilities enrolled in the program. In order to launch Part A, DHS provided 56,900 doses of the Moderna vaccine to pharmacy partners and has provided 70,000 doses for Part B. Given Wisconsin’s population of residents and staff in assisted living settings, the program will require another 70,000 doses for a total of 140,000 doses of vaccine.

As of January 14, 11,712 residents and 13,590 staff at skilled nursing facilities have been vaccinated. Of the 361 eligible facilities in Part A, 261 skilled nursing facilities have now completed the first dose of the vaccine.

At the current rate, DHS expects all participating facilities to complete the first vaccination by January 18. Pharmacies and assisted living facilities may choose to launch Part B before January 25 if they have adequate vaccine and capacity to begin vaccinating.

For up-to-date information about Wisconsin’s COVID-19 response, visit the DHS COVID-19 webpage or register for the weekly update email(link is external). You can also follow @DHSWI on Facebook(link is external), Twitter(link is external), or dhs.wi on Instagram(link is external) for more information on COVID-19.