Nursing home residents will all have access to a flu shot
Health Commissioner Dr. Kenneth Robinson said every resident of a Tennessee nursing home, assistant living facility or home for the aged will have access to a flu shot in upcoming weeks.
The state Department of Health has created a new distribution plan for the influenza vaccine that guarantees thousands of doses will go to residents across the state considered at high risk.
“The Department of Health will guide the distribution of Tennessee’s allocation of 98,000 doses of vaccine to ensure they get to where they are needed most,” Robinson said Tuesday at Mariner Health of Nashville, a facility for the elderly that previously hadn’t received any vaccines.
“Our top priority within the state will be all the residents of long-term care facilities; one hundred percent of those residents will have access to vaccines if they choose to.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Nov. 9 decided to allow health officials from each state to create a plan for distributing a remaining 54 million doses. The U.S. vaccine supply was cut in half this fall after one of the nation’s main providers, Chiron Corp., was found to have a contaminated supply.
The CDC also has assured the state that vaccine orders previously placed by local health departments will be fully supplied by the end of January, Robinson said.