Independent living facilities not eligible for on-site COVID-19 vaccination clinics

For those in long-term care facilities, the vaccine comes to you. If your loved ones live in one of the 568 retirement communities across North Carolina, it's a different story.

The Southern Pines Gracious Retirement Living Center enrolled all of its residents in the Center for Disease Control's Pharmacy Partnership Program, which brings pharmacists on site for a coronavirus vaccination clinic, but then came with unwelcome news.

In a letter on Jan. 15, the CDC told the company that independent living communities were not eligible.

"Now, everybody's scrambling to get on a list to get the vaccine, said Marian Andersen.

Andersen, who is 85-years-old, said she was banking on the vaccine coming to her, since she doesn't drive.

"I consider myself living in a Petri dish here," she described.

Now, she's had to sign up online to get her doses at the Moore County Health Department.

"I have no idea when I'll be able to get it," said Andersen.

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The independent living community's owner Hawthorn Senior Living told residents that because Gracious Living is not attached to a "skilled nursing or assisted living community," the CDC dropped it from the program.

Such independent living communities are not licensed and regulation by the state's Department of Health and Human Services. Outside health care services do come to the premises, but they're not employed by Hawthorn.

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Steve Rank's 82-year-old mother, who's legally blind, lives in the community.

"They're the at-risk group. This is the at-risk group. Just because they don't require skilled nursing care doesn't mean they're any less at risk," said Rank.

A Hawthorn spokesman said the CDC suggested working with state and county health departments to develop a vaccination plan.

Moore County Health Department spokesman Matt Garner said the county's vaccine supply is so limited, it can only give shots at is offices in Carthage.

Hawthorn runs three other independent living centers in central North Carolina, which local health department are working with to get on-site vaccination clinics this week.

Garner said he hopes to open vaccination sites in high-risk communities but only when the county gets more supplies of the vaccine. Right now, he said, it's not possible.