STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. The first doses of the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine were delivered to a Staten Island nursing home Monday and administered to residents and staff in a pivotal step in the race to protect those most vulnerable to the disease.
More than 100 residents and about 140 employees at Clove Lakes Health Care and Rehabilitation Center received the first of two shots of the Pfizer vaccine on Monday, said Jane Harris, a spokeswoman for the facility.
Harris said representatives from Walgreens entered the facility at 7 a.m. and were slated to continue vaccinations through 6 p.m.
The second round of vaccinations will take place on Jan. 11, said Harris, since Pfizers vaccination requires a second booster shot to be given about three weeks after first receiving the immunization.
Dr. Ginny Mantello, the boroughs health and wellness director, previously said the effort to educate staff and residents, store the temperamental immunizations and transport doses to the Islands 10 skilled nursing facilities was shaping up to be a tremendous undertaking.
There are so many moving parts to this, Mantello said in an interview last week.
Both Walgreens and CVS two of the pharmacies either assigned to or chosen by Staten Island nursing homes to handle the vaccine and immunize its health care workers and residents announced the process of administering Pfizers shot in New Yorks long-term care facilities today.
Walgreens is very proud to be a part of this historic milestone to begin administering Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine to our most vulnerable populations, said John Standley, president of Walgreens. With more than a decade of experience administering various vaccines, we have the deep expertise to support this unprecedented effort to allow our nation to emerge from this pandemic.
Todays rollout is the culmination of months of internal planning and demonstrates how the private sector can use its expertise to help solve some of our most critical challenges, said Larry J. Merlo, president and chief executive officer of CVS Health. Im grateful for the herculean efforts of everyone involved, including our health care professionals, who will be deployed throughout the country to bring peace of mind to long-term care facility residents, staff and their loved ones.
The operation to vaccinate vulnerable nursing home residents and staff is expected to ramp up as more vaccinations become available. Initial shipments of the second COVID-19 vaccine authorized in the U.S. from Moderna left a distribution center on Sunday.
The rollout of the vaccine to the Islands hospital workers began last week, the Advance/SILive.com reported.
Catherine O'Hare, an assistant nurse manager in Staten Island University Hospital's critical care unit, prepares one of Staten Island's first COVID-19 vaccines at the hospital's Ocean Breeze campus on Monday, Dec. 14, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Paul Liotta)
While nursing home staff and residents were also included within the declaration to target those most at-risk with the first wave of vaccinations, it appears the immunizations are to be given to each Staten Island facility in a staggered process.
When contacted by an Advance/SILive.com reporter, Annie Fajardo, a secretary for the nursing office at New Vanderbilt Rehab and Care Center in Clifton, said the facility would begin its immunization process, via Walgreens, on Tuesday.
The Advance/SILive.com previously reported that Carmel Richmond Health Care and Rehabilitation Center in Dongan Hills would start the vaccination process on Dec. 23.
At Staten Island Care Center, in New Brighton, Jackie Kreismann, the regional director of marketing for the company that oversees the facility, said patients and residents would begin being vaccinated on Dec. 28.
Rachel Pucciarelli, the assistant director of Richmond Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing, in Stapleton, said the facility was having its immunizations handled by Walgreens but she was not sure of an exact date for the first round.
New York Citys Health + Hospitals site at Sea View is slated to begin receiving its first shots this week, the agency said.
NYC Health + Hospitals is excited that weve begun to offer the COVID-19 vaccine to hospital workers, and were looking forward to offering the vaccine to employees and residents in our five long-term care facilities beginning this week, including NYC Health + Hospitals/Sea View, said Stephanie Guzman, a New York City Health + Hospitals spokeswoman.
In line with the mission of NYC Health + Hospitals, we are committed to ensuring there is fair and equitable access to the vaccine and will prioritize New York Citys most vulnerable and most at-risk for contracting the virus as we continue to roll-out in the weeks and months to come, Guzman added.
Multiple other Staten Island nursing homes did not respond to phone calls and emails requesting the status of immunizations.
Eger Healthcare workers. (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel)Alexandra Salmieri
In addition to receiving consent to administer the vaccine, nursing homes on the borough faced the challenge of overcoming public distrust in an immunization developed at a record pace.
Scott LaRue, the president and CEO of ArchCare, which runs Carmel Richmond Nursing Home, last week said there was not widespread reluctance to take the shot among residents, but that only about 33% of staff were initially willing to take the vaccine, prior to an information campaign launched by ArchCare.
Some efforts to push back against vaccine hesitancy began last week in the boroughs nursing homes, the Advance/SILive.com learned. A PowerPoint given to staff at a Staten Island nursing home last week outlined the data from clinical trials of Pfizer and Moderna and addressed questions related to the vaccines.
The PowerPoint also addressed concerns of side effects and the importance of receiving a second dose of the immunization.
While vaccinations will not be available for the general public for months, nursing homes were particularly deadly locations since the coronavirus outbreak began in March. More than 200 Staten Islanders are presumed or confirmed to have died of the disease, according to state Health Department data.
Vaccinating one of our most vulnerable populations is the latest milestone in our multifaceted pandemic response, which includes testing more than 10 million people for the virus since March, said Karen Lynch, currently executive vice president of CVS Health and president of Aetna, who will become the companys next president and CEO on Feb. 1.
The eventual availability of COVID-19 vaccines in communities across the country will bring us one step closer to overcoming the most significant health challenge of our lifetime, Lynch said.
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First doses of coronavirus vaccine administered in Staten Island nursing home - SILive.com