St. Joseph’s vaccinates 1,500 frontline healthcare workers against Covid-19 | Paterson Times Paterson Times

St. Joseph’s vaccinates 1,500 frontline healthcare workers against Covid-19

By Jayed Rahman
Published: December 21, 2020

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One thousand five hundred frontline employees at St. Joseph’s Health have been vaccinated against Covid-19.

St. Joseph’s University Medical Center in Paterson and St. Joseph’s Wayne Medical Center in Wayne simultaneously began vaccinating healthcare workers on Friday morning.

“The widespread response by the St. Joseph’s team demonstrates that employees have confidence in the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine,” said Kevin Slavin, president and CEO of St. Joseph’s Health, in announcing the administration of 1,500 doses on Monday. “They are dedicated to doing everything possible to protect themselves, their families, and their patients in our ongoing battle against the coronavirus pandemic.”

Clinical and support staff, who have been battling the new coronavirus since March, unhesitatingly turned out to receive what they called “a shot of hope.” St. Joseph’s received 2,925 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines last week.

Health officials at the two campuses vaccinated 500 employees per day. Healthcare workers and long-term care facility residents are part of the first phase of inoculation, according to federal guidelines.

Long-term care facility residents have to wait an extra week before receiving the vaccines after governor Phil Murphy’s administration missed a deadline by a day because of volume of information that had to be submitted to the federal government. The missed deadline means vaccination which could have started on December 21 will now begin on December 28.

Joseph Duffy, chief medical officer, and Aceita Small, director of nursing, were the first two people to receive vaccines.

Duffy and Small led St. Joseph’s response in testing and treating Covid-19 patients.

“The vaccine symbolizes hope,” said Duffy. “It’s a light at the end of the tunnel for all who have been impacted by COVID-19 – and that’s all of us.”

St. Joseph’s will continue to vaccinate its thousands of employees over the coming weeks and months.

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