Nursing homes were at the top of the state’s priority list for COVID-19 vaccinations. But while many health care and emergency services workers have gotten their first shots — and some are expected to receive their second of the two-shot regimen this coming week — the two nursing homes in the Tri-Lakes area are still waiting.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday criticized the federal government’s vaccine distribution plan for nursing homes, which involves distribution through pharmacy chains such as CVS and Walgreens. He said the plan isn’t moving fast enough and that of the 611 nursing homes statewide, residents of 288 have received vaccines.

In Essex and Franklin counties, Malone’s Alice Center nursing home is one of the only facilities to have received doses of the coronavirus vaccines as of Monday, via Walgreens.

Residents of the Mercy Living Center in Tupper Lake who agree to be vaccinated are expected to receive shots this week, according to Matt Scollin, spokesperson for Adirondack Health, which owns and runs the Mercy nursing home.

Residents at Elderwood of Uihlein at Lake Placid are scheduled to receive their voluntary shots around Monday, Jan. 11, according to Elderwood spokesman Chuck Hayes.

Until Monday, residents of both Saranac Lake at Will Rogers and the Keene Valley Neighborhood House senior living centers were not eligible for vaccines because those facilities aren’t nursing homes. Instead, they’re considered congregate living facilities, the difference being that nursing homes provide health care services.

Nursing home residents are among the highest-risk population for the coronavirus and have accounted for nearly 40% of the United States’ total COVID-19 death toll, according to the Associated Press. The U.S. surpassed 110,000 COVID-related deaths inside nursing homes last month.