Q&A: What’s happening to help the homebound?
Q. L.S. from Sun City Anthem in Henderson asked us if there are any plans for vaccinating residents who are bedridden or homebound.
“There are no provisions being made for these residents, which include my mom of 95 years of age,” L.S. wrote. “Mom reads your paper daily and believes that the government is putting these residents on the back burner, so she is not taking this very well and is scared.”
A. Some counties in Nevada, including Washoe County and the Quad-County Region — Carson City, Douglas, Lyon and Storey counties — have begun vaccinating homebound residents, Candice McDaniel, a top vaccine official for the state, said in response to our question at a Friday COVID-19 briefing by state officials.
In Washoe County, public health nurses with the county’s emergency medical services provider started administering COVID-19 vaccine to homebound seniors on Jan. 28, county spokesman Scott Oxarart said in an email.
“We administer vaccines to about 36 people per week using this method, which is very time-consuming and resource intensive as you can imagine,” Oxarart said.
But, L.S., you will be more interested in the situation in Clark County, where efforts are still in the planning stages.
Southern Nevada Health District representative Stephanie Bethel emailed us late Friday afternoon to say the district is “exploring ways that we can provide vaccines to homebound people in coordination with community partners and food delivery services that are already assisting those members of the community.”
She had no estimate for when the vaccines would be available.
Contact Mary Hynes at mhynes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0336. Follow @MaryHynes1 on Twitter.
