Drive-thru vaccinations coming for all MS healthcare workers as COVID shatters records
More than 120,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been shipped to Mississippi, where state health directors say at least 17,000 individuals have so far been vaccinated.
The first vaccines in a state of almost 3 million people are being administered to front-line healthcare workers and workers and residents of long-term care facilities. The vaccine arrives as Mississippi cases and deaths hit record numbers.
State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers and Senior Deputy Jim Craig of the Mississippi State Department of Health said during a news conference Wednesday that information on the number of vaccines administered will soon be posted online with other coronavirus statistics on the MSDH website.
Starting Monday, vaccines will be administered at 18 drive-thru clinics across Mississippi for all health-care workers, including additional doctors and nurses, dentists, administrative and support staff, and emergency medical technicians.
Health-care personnel can register online for an appointment to get the vaccine at covidvaccine.umc.edu.
To administer this round of vaccines, the health department will use 18 existing drive-thru locations where COVID-19 tests have been offered in partnership with the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Nurses and Mississippi National Guard medics will be administering the vaccines.
Vaccination sites and dates:
- Harrison County Health Department, 1102 45th Avenue, Gulfport, on Tuesday and Friday (Jan. 5 and 8)
- Jackson County Health Department, 4600 Lt. Eugene J. Majure Drive, Pascagoula, on Monday and Wednesday (Jan. 4 and 6)
- Forrest County, Lake Terrace Convention Center, 1 Convention Center Plaza, Hattiesburg, on Monday and Wednesday (Jan. 4 and 6)
All sites are open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Other examples of health-care personnel who can be vaccinated include nursing assistants, technicians, therapists, pharmacists, environmental services staff and students and trainees.
Moderna, Pfizer vaccines shipped to MS
The state has received shipments of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. It is important that all those vaccinated receive the same brand of vaccine as a followup booster, with a Moderna booster due after 28 days and a Pfizer booster after 21 days.
After the first shot, each person will get a card saying which vaccine they have received and when to get the second dose. The MSDH says vaccination sites, including the drive-thru clinics, will send notices when boosters are due.
Residents and workers at long-term care facilities, including the state’s 204 nursing homes and four Veterans Affairs facilities, are being vaccinated through a federal partnership with CVS and Walgreens pharmacies.
Byers said the state will first vaccinate a total of 200,000 health-care workers and 60,000 people in long-term care settings.
He said the state is receiving additional funding for vaccination efforts through the federal Stafford Act, with a need for $17 million anticipated. The state Legislature is aware that Mississippi will need to provide 25% of total funding and has been supportive, he said.
State receives anticipated doses of COVID-19
Despite President-elect Joe Biden’s assertion that vaccines are being pushed out more slowly than anticipated, the numbers reported by Byers and Craig align with the 125,000 doses the state anticipated for the first two weeks of vaccination roll-out.
First responders and other essential workers are in line for vaccines once those in health-care and long-term care setting are vaccinated. Beyond that, Byers and Craig said plans are still developing.
“The vaccine is exciting, and we are glad to have it,” Byers said. “ . . . But, guys, we are not out of the woods. We are in the worst times we have seen so far in this pandemic.”
He implored Mississippians to keep gatherings small and nuclear for New Year’s and to wear masks. He said everyone should avoid social gatherings as a newer and more transmissible strain of COVID-19 has made its way into the U.S.
“We know that every case can translate into hospitalization, it can translate into deaths,” Byers said.
Health-care workers vaccinated on MS Gulf Coast
Staff at Memorial Hospital at Gulfport and Singing River Health System, based in Jackson County, say they have each received the vaccine doses they anticipated and that inoculations of front-line workers have been going smoothly.
Singing River expects to have enough doses to begin dispensing the vaccine Wednesday to affiliated clinics for medical staff, while Memorial has been vaccinating clinic workers on its hospital campus.
“We were worried that it would be delayed after the first round,” said Sarah Duffey, media relations director for Singing River hospitals in Pascagoula, Ocean Springs and Gulfport. “We’re just excited that the processes are in place and we’ll be able to offer it to more people than we expected early on.”
At Memorial, director of employee health and vaccine coordinator Cindy Hansen said the hospital received 2,000 vaccine doses of the Moderna vaccine in two weekly shipments, beginning Dec. 21. Employees in direct contact with COVID-19 patients, including those in the emergency room and intensive care, have been vaccinated.
“If they say it’s coming, it’s arrived in the time it’s supposed to, and they’ve also shipped the supplies with it,” Hansen said, noting that syringes, needles and alcohol prep have arrived with the vaccine so the hospital has not needed to dip into patient supplies.
She said reactions to the vaccine, only two of which required emergency room treatment as a precaution, have been mild, including low-grade fever, body aches, headache and fatigue that went away in less than 24 hours.
“Let’s just hope that more and more people will see the side effects are minimal and they’re manageable,” she said. “Let’s just hope more and more people take it as this goes on.”
With the new round of doses, Memorial is vaccinating essential employees such as food-service and housekeeping employees.
“We’ve cast a wide net of staff who’ve been immunized already,” Hansen said. “We as health-care workers have been waiting for this and it is here. Our staff is excited because we feel it’s the beginning of the end of this madness.”
This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 12:10 PM.
