Baystate Health administers first COVID-19 vaccine; other Western Mass hospitals set to immunize staff
Updated Dec 16, 2020;
SPRINGFIELD Ten months into the COVID-19 pandemic that has swept the globe, a new front against it has begun in Western Massachusetts.
Baystate Health began to administer its allotment of 1,950 doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine early Wednesday morning to staff at greatest risk for exposure to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the respiratory disease known as COVID-19.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts now stands at 286,866 and it is blamed for 11,190 deaths in the Bay State. (Nationally, there have been 16.6 million confirmed cases resulting in more than 302,000 fatalities.)
More Connecticut hospitals begin coronavirus vaccinations Tuesday, as initial shipments of Pfizer vaccine continue to arrive across the state courant.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from courant.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Yale-New Haven Health said that they have the right freezers and dry ice to store and ship the vaccines to everyone inside their network which ranges from New York to Rhode Island. Once it s thawed, the Pfizer vaccine is stable for about five days and so our pharmacies have mechanisms to thaw it safely, transport it to those locations that don t have the freezers, said Balcezak.
Yale-New Haven Health is familiar with shipping vaccinations to their networks within the state. We are no stranger to distributing vaccines and we will be relying on our system for distributing flu vaccines, Balcezak said. There will be some challenges but the flu vaccination game plan is a great model for how we will distribute Pfizer s vaccine.
System Pharmacy Clinical Manager at Hartford HealthCare Colleen Teevan prepares the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19 to give to a front line worker outside of Hartford Hospital, Monday, Dec. 14, 2020, in Hartford, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
Frontline workers began receiving COVID-19 vaccinations Monday, as the nation battles a second surge of the pandemic that is filling hospital beds and pushing resources to the brink.
A Hartford HealthCare doctor was among the first in Connecticut to receive the vaccine.
Dr. Keith Grant rolled up the sleeve of his white coat Monday as one of the first 14 workers in line for Pfizer’s two-phase shot, which has shown to be 95% effective.
By Brigitte Ruthman and Tracey O’Shaughnessy, Republican-American
Frontline workers began receiving COVID-19 vaccinations Monday, as the nation battles a second surge of the pandemic that is filling hospital beds and pushing resources to the brink.
A Hartford HealthCare doctor was among the first in Connecticut to receive the vaccine.
Dr. Keith Grant rolled up the sleeve of his white coat Monday as one of the first 14 workers in line for Pfizer’s two-phase shot, which has shown to be 95% effective.
The vaccine was part of the state’s first shipment of nearly 32,000 doses from Pfizer, which has major research operations in Groton.