Residents, Staff Members at Parker’s Elder Care Communities Begin Receiving COVID-19 Vaccine
Originally on TAPInto NJ
HIGHLAND PARK, NJ – Doris Clark sat down, rolled up her sleeve and waited for the pinch.
She was one of several residents and staff members at Parker at Stonegate, an assisted living community on River Road, to receive her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday afternoon.
“I’m taking the vaccine because it’s going to help to keep me healthy and we don’t want anyone getting sick because this virus is very, very dangerous,” she said. “I like everyone here and want to be with them again soon.”
Clark and more than 300 of her fellow residents at Parker’s elder care campuses at Highland Park, Piscataway, New Brunswick, Somerset and Monroe Township have signed up to receive the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine.
More than 500 employees have also signed up to be vaccinated.
The vaccines will be administered by CVS pharmacy through Thursday.
The vaccines are being distributed in accordance with guidelines established by Gov. Phil Murphy and the New Jersey Department of Health. All health care workers, such as doctors and nurses in hospitals, began receiving their first doses on Dec. 15.
Since then, long-term elder care residents and employees and first responders such as police officers and firefighters have also begun to receive the vaccine.
As of Sunday, more than 200,000 doses had been administered in New Jersey.
This moment has been eagerly anticipated since the first COVID-19 case was diagnosed in New Jersey last winter.
As cases raged and intensive care unit beds filled up in hospitals across the state in the spring, the arrival of a vaccine seemed far in the future. New Jerseyans were urged to put on facemasks, wash hands, remain socially distant and await the vaccine.
That moment arrived at Stonegate on Sunday.
“It’s a day of hope for Parker, for our residents and for all of us,” said Carolyn Bachonski, Chief Clinical Officer at Parker.