Having coronavirus vaccines on hand this week has been a relief to the Newman Regional Health administrative team.
Director of Business Development McKenzie Cinelli says the hospital was in line to receive a shipment, but people began to wonder after the lines of communication went dark for a few days.
Cinelli says she is “in awe” at how the hospital has handled the situation since the federal government granted emergency use authorization to Pfizer and BioNTech last Friday.
The vaccination process started Wednesday evening, shortly after the hospital received 160 doses. The process may end Friday. Cinelli says this will cover the hospital’s frontline workers, with plans for more hospital workers and possibly long-term care facilities getting vaccinations with the next shipment next week.
Meanwhile, Cinelli says the hospital is seeing the same “flattening of the curve” in caseload that Lyon County Public Health is seeing. Inpatient hospitalizations, which had been as high as 17, are now down to three. The Respiratory Clinic, which at one point had over 40 patients a day, is now down to a 5-patient daily average.
