Hospitals across central Connecticut started vaccinating medical workers and other staff this week, marking a milestone in the fight against COVID-19.
“Being able to have our staff and medical staff vaccinated will help ensure they will continue to be safe and healthy, which will allow us to continue to provide our community with the best possible care,” said Dr. Jesse Wagner, chief medical officer at Middlesex Health in Middletown.
The first vaccinations happened Tuesday at Middlesex, with 12 workers getting the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The system plans to open a vaccine clinic on Thursday at Middlesex Hospital that will be open to both Middlesex Health employees and eligible healthcare workers in the community.
St. Francis Hospital in Hartford got its first doses early Tuesday morning and had vaccinated an initial group of frontline workers by 11 am.
St. Francis and Hartford hospitals both got the biggest vaccine deliveries in the area this week, with 1,950 doses each. Hartford HealthCare was the first to begin vaccinations at Hartford Hospital on Monday at a media-packed ceremony attended by the governor.
According to the state, Middlesex, Manchester, Bristol, Waterbury and Connecticut Children’s hospitals all got 975 vaccine doses each this week. Statewide, 31,200 doses were distributed to a mix of hospitals and nursing homes.
Three dozen UConn Health clinical workers were vaccinated Tuesday at John Dempsey Hospital. UConn Health CEO Dr. Andy Agwunobi was one of the first to get one of the system’s 975 doses.
“We consider this the point of which we start to turn the corner and we are able to protect all of our health care workers so that we can start to spread these vaccines out to others in the community and start to get back to normality.” Agwunobi said.
