Los Angeles County announced Tuesday the launch of a partnership with the city of Los Angeles and public health service startup Curative to deliver and administer the COVID-19 Moderna vaccines to staff and residents of Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) in Los Angeles County.

This partnership is the first of additional partnerships that the County is establishing to facilitate the vaccine rollout to SNFs. Although the majority of SNFs in Los Angeles County indicated that they were capable of receiving and administering vaccines to their staff and residents, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health in partnership with the City and Curative have activated mobile teams to support SNFs with vaccination assistance.

The first Moderna vaccines were delivered to 59 nursing home facilities across the Los Angeles already. Additional SNFs indicating that the need assistance with vaccination have been assigned to Curative, the County, or City staff for assistance. This public-private partnership will ensure that approximately 69,000 vaccines will be deployed to staff and residents in 339 SNFs by the end of the calendar year. This vaccine program is critical, as nursing facilities account for only 5% of the state’s COVID-19 cases, but 35% of the deaths.

This public-private partnership is just one part of the County’s COVID-19 vaccination strategy, and builds on relationships and service provision models that have delivered millions of Los Angeles County residents free COVID-19 testing at numerous locations across the County.

Working closely with the City of L.A. and Curative, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health will lead a coordinated vaccine deployment effort to all skilled nursing facilities. Given the complex vaccination process, many SNFs will now be able to more efficiently vaccinate staff and residents as a result of this partnership, which will include additional staff who support vaccine education, registration, and delivery. This collaboration brings public health expertise, local leadership, and the private sector together to build capacity in the SNFs to continue to do this, and to safely speed up the vaccination process for some of the County’s most vulnerable residents and care professionals.

”Skilled Nursing Facilities have been hit hard by COVID-19, accounting for close to 3,000 deaths,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “The partnership with Curative and the city of Los Angeles will allow us to vaccinate SNF residents and staff quicker and with the flexibility needed to reach the 339 skilled nursing facilities in Los Angeles County.”

“Our City’s number one responsibility is to preserve the health and safety of our residents — especially the most vulnerable — and with the arrival of these vaccines, our first priority must be protecting the folks hardest hit by this pandemic, from healthcare workers to the staff and residents of skilled nursing facilities,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. “True progress is made through partnerships, and the City is proud to work alongside the County, Curative, CORE and LAFD to first bring free testing to our communities and now to support the effort to vaccinate Angelenos.”

“Los Angeles has been one of the hardest hit areas during the pandemic, and as the place where Curative was originally founded, it’s an honor to lead vaccination delivery in the community. This is a significant moment in history, and we are ready to bring these life-saving vaccines to the people who need them most,” said Isaac Turner, CIO and co-founder of Curative. “Curative has disrupted the traditional healthcare delivery system by rapidly scaling COVID-19 testing at thousands of sites across the country in a matter of months and administering the flu vaccine – now, we are eager to put our proven model to work for the COVID-19 vaccine. As we enter this new phase of the pandemic, we’re building on everything we learned over the last year at Curative and we look forward to making healthcare more accessible to all: both now and in the future as we evolve as a company.”

By working with Curative and the City, Los Angeles County will create the operational flexibility to better address SNFs’ needs. The County will also speed up the process of scaling vaccinations so that Los Angeles can build immunity in residents more quickly. Curative will deploy a full suite of vaccine services to Skilled Nursing Facilities in L.A. County needing a high level of support, including registration, logistics, and administration. Similarly, the City of Los Angeles, led by the Mayor’s Office and the Los Angeles Fire Department, will provide world-renowned logistics support, registration, and vaccine administration support to Skilled Nursing Facilities within the city of Los Angeles. Expert teams from Public Health are providing logistics and administration support across the county.