No One Has Been Vaccinated At City View Nursing Home In Cicero, Which Has Had Serious Trouble With COVID Before
CICERO, Ill. (CBS) -- No one has been vaccinated for coronavirus at the City View Multi-Care Center in Cicero, and it is a place that has made headlines for COVID trouble before.
As CBS 2's Lauren Victory reported Thursday, a viewer reached out to us – concerned about her sister inside the nursing home. The woman was crying on the phone to Victory, scared about recently-confirmed coronavirus cases at the facility at a time when nursing home COVID rates are plummeting around the country because of vaccinations.
She said she has been repeatedly asking questions about a vaccination date -and she's not the only one begging for answers.
Her loved one is stuck in the City View nursing home and has not ventured to the outside world for a whole year.
The distraught viewer also wrote to CBS 2: "Every time I see the news and they report on how the nursing homes and living assisted facilities are the first in line to get their shots, I think, not at City View, [they're] not. They are one of the last on the list and have been forgotten about."
That may be true. No vaccine has made it to the building yet.
"Someone has to answer for this," said Erica Bland-Durosinmi, executive vice president at SEIU Healthcare.
Bland-Durosinmi was floored by CBS 2 inquiries to the union about a lack of COVID shots at City View - especially because of the facility's history.
"These are people that we ask to put their lives on the line every day and go into this facility," Bland-Durosinmi said, "a facility that has had 254 cases, that has had 15 deaths, and five cases in the last 28 days."
With vaccinations well into Phase 1B, how can the most vulnerable people and our healthcare heroes still not have their COVID shots?
"This isn't right. We should've been the first," said City View certified nursing assistant Shantonia Jackson. "They should've been on top of this."
Jackson said she has asked administrators about vaccinations several times.
The vast majority of long-term care facilities in our state signed up for the Federal Pharmacy Partnership and have gotten at least one dose by now.
"What [the administrator] said to me was, 'We missed the deadline because you guys were on strike and we were in the process of changing over management,'" Jackson said.
That strike asking for better pay and more PPE was in November.
In September, a Medicare inspection of City View found the facility "failed to implement a surveillance plan" for COVID cases between the end of April to mid-July. City View fixed the issue a few weeks later.
Now a March 1, 2021 letter to relatives confirms the virus is back at the nursing home.
There is no mention of vaccines.
"I can't keep waiting on City View," Jackson said. "I can't keep putting my family in jeopardy."
For some news for Jackson, staff will now be vaccinated at City View on Sunday. All residents who want a shot should have one by next Sunday.
That is according to the spokesperson for Cook County Health who says expanding partnerships - and yes, CBS 2's inquiries put City View on the schedule.
Victory's repeated calls and emails to City View were ignored.
