South Jersey hospitals begin giving second doses of COVID vaccine

Bloomberg-Valerie Harris (Valerie Harris) sat down and casually smiled and talked to the nurse across the table who had just given Harris a second COVID vaccination.

Harris, the nurse manager of the Deborah Heart and Lung Center, is experiencing a 15-minute waiting period after the injection to make sure she does not have any adverse side effects. 

But she said that three weeks ago, she was in the same Deborah auditorium and did not suffer any pain, not even the soreness she felt after the first shot. 

"Nothing," Harris said with a smile. She also said that it is a great thing to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

She added: "I am part of the solution." "It feels like the light at the end of the tunnel."

Harris is one of several Deborah employees who received a second COVID vaccination in the hospital on Thursday. Deborah started the second injection because it has been 21 days since the initial injection was injected into the arm of the willing medical staff. 

Pemberton Hospital uses Pfizer vaccines and requires 21 days to wait between injections. All Deborah employees are part of Phase 1 A of the ongoing COVID vaccination in New Jersey, which will also focus on long-term care of residents, staff, and prisoners. 

Deborah CEO Joseph Chirichella said that about 600 of the approximately 1,100 medical staff in the hospital should be fully vaccinated in the coming weeks. He hopes that once he sees that his colleagues have not been hit by any major side effects, more employees will agree to shoot. The CEO believes that in the next month or so, Deborah's vaccination rate will reach 80% to 85%. 

Chiricella said: "I think confidence is increasing." "I also think people just don't want it around the holidays."

Last week, other hospital systems in New Jersey also started using the second dose.

The hospital's public relations manager Wendy Marano (Wendy Marano) said that Cooper University Hospital in Camden started the second dose earlier this week. It has been three weeks since Cooper completed his first COVID vaccination in New Jersey at the beginning of its launch, namely Tuesday.

Virtua Executive Vice President Dr. Reg Blaber said that the Virtua Health System is the largest in Burlington County and is undergoing the first round of the second dose on Friday.

Inspira Health Network, the largest network in Cumberland, also started managing the second photo this week. According to hospital officials, Jefferson Health Hospital, which has hospitals in Camden County and Gloucester County, will begin the second dose of treatment on January 15. 

Marano said that Cooper had to administer hundreds of vaccine injections every day. Braber said Virtua will inject a second dose to more than 7,000 employees in the coming weeks. 

Braber also agreed with Chiricella. He said that now more medical staff will see safety and will therefore sign contracts. 

According to officials, so far, despite recent reports that the state is not using most of its medicines, the local hospital system has enough vaccine doses to cover all willing employees. 

Marano said: "We only know our vaccination plan and it's going well." 

Officials said that once the hospital system completes the vaccination of its employees, they will open its facilities and operations to New Jersey residents in the next phase of deployment, such as emergency personnel and people over 75.

But according to Braber, at least in the hospital, there are still a few weeks to do this. He said that Vitava executives expect the medical staff phase to last until February.  

He added: "If it can't be surpassed." 

In Deborah on Thursday, only a few employees were vaccinated at a time. But once their shots were over, they walked into the hallway and waited for 15 minutes, they exhaled, leaned back on the chairs, and smiled. 

"I feel good," said Peggy Dowd, Deborah's senior financial director. "I feel more confident."