Updated 16:35
Plans to vaccinate the Martha’s Vineyard community are underway in the hospital, with an estimated rollout for the general public in the spring and all summer.
The president and CEO of Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, Denise Schepici, said during a conference call with reporters on Wednesday that the hospital will play a leading role in administering the vaccine to the island’s population. A team is set up to work out logistics on the administration of the vaccine on the island.
‘We have learned so much through our testing of COVID-19, and we want to turn the information, reinforced by the support we receive from the Mass General Brigham system, into developing a smart and effective strategy to get the vaccine on the to deliver whole island. , ”Said Schepici.
The hospital follows guidelines from the state and its parent company, General Massa Brigham. A graph issued by the state divides the estimated vaccination into three phases. The state is still in phase one, which includes health care workers, long-term care facilities, first responders, community care institutions, home care workers and health workers who do not face COVID. Phase two is expected to begin later this month and last until April, and includes people with more than two illnesses, early education, K-12, transport, groceries, sanitation, public health workers, food and agriculture, adults over 65, and then those with a comorbidity. Phase three, which includes the general public, is expected to begin sometime in April and last until June.
Vaccination of vaccines to the general public is expected to be similar the flu clinic held in November, with cars staged in areas around the island, and then sent to a transit area to receive the shot.
Claire Seguin, chief nurse and chief operating officer, said the vaccination of vaccines in the hospital was going “smoothly” and that the hospital was moving into the next phase to vaccinate all staff in the hospital.
The hospital also began administering second-dose vaccines to staff. In total, the hospital administered the first dose of vaccine to 308 staff members, and the second dose to 100 staff members.
Seguin added that every dose of vaccine is used by the hospital, and that there is a waiting list of eligible people should someone decide not to take the vaccine.
“We have more people wanting the vaccine than we have available doses,” Seguin said. “We will continue to ensure that all doses are used.”
Schepici is appealing to anyone who can get a vaccine to get it as soon as the hospital can provide it.
All 26 staff and 40 residents of Windemere received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. The second dose will be delivered on 2 February. The vaccines are administered by a CVS team through a federal program.
Schepici said no employees or residents of Windemere have tested positive for COVID-19 since the hospital’s last press briefing on Dec. 30. The hospital confirmed last month a total of five employees of Windemere tested positive for COVID-19.
On Wednesday, 13 Island veterans traveled to Hyannis to the Veterans Administration Clinic to receive the first of two doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Murphy told The Times the whole process took 20 minutes and was seamless. “It was very slippery,” Murphy said.
After being given the chance, the veterans were given information about the vaccine and were enrolled to return to Hyannis on February 10 for the second dose.
Any other veterans on the island over the age of 85 who are interested should contact the Veterans Administration Clinic for more information. The clinic plans to vaccinate veterans over 75.
According to a hospital information leaflet, the Pfizer vaccine is approved for children over 16. The Moderna vaccine is only approved for adults 18 years and older. The Pfizer vaccine is 95 percent effective seven days after the second dose. The Moderna vaccine is 14 percent effective 14 days after the second dose.
It is not clear to health officials how long immunity will last after people are vaccinated. Health officials also encourage people who have had COVID-19 to still get the vaccine.
The vaccine is also provided free of charge to humans, according to the hospital’s fact sheet.
There were 12 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 Wednesday – 11 from the hospital and one from a private practitioner.
The hospital has conducted 11,183 tests for COVID-19 since March. Of these, 481 tested positive, 10,612 negative and 90 are pending results.
There are currently two patients hospitalized with COVID-19. One patient has been hospitalized since Jan. 6, and the other one was admitted Tuesday. According to Seguin, both admitted patients are in a ‘reasonable condition’.
The hospital on Tuesday sent a patient in ‘serious condition’ from the island through MedFlight. There have been four total COVID-19-related transmissions since the pandemic began.
The patient admitted last week is a readmission. Seguin said that once a patient reaches the 14-day mark after infection, it is no longer contagious.
“Once they are taken over again in the stage, it is for the residual effect on their own body,” Seguin said.
Schepici again stressed the importance of hand washing, social distance and wearing masks.
“We are in a boom because some are just refusing to do what most of us do, to make sacrifices to comply and to stop this spread,” Schepici said. “I want to keep encouraging people: do the right thing.”
Meanwhile, TestMV has conducted 29,954 tests since June. Of these, 199 tested positive, 28,674 negative and 1,081 pending results.
The city of Aquinnah reported its first positive case from its own testing on Friday. In total, the city conducted 388 tests, of which one returned positive, 375 negative and 12 pending results.
Of the total 680 confirmed cases since March, 342 are female and 338 male. Of these, 114 are younger than 20, 120 are in their 20s, 172 are in their 30s, 100 are in their 40s, 92 are in their 50s, 52 are in their 60s and 28 are older than 70s.
There was one new probable case on Tuesday, with a total of 45 probable cases reported since March – 23 women and 22 men.
Individuals can be tested more than once to confirm disease or to be freed from isolation. This can lead to a difference between the number of positive individuals and the number of positive tests reported.
Of these, 26 received positive antibody tests, and 19 were diagnosed symptomatically. There are eight in their 60s, 11 in their 20s, six in their 50s, eight in their 40s, four younger than 20, three older than 70 and five in their 30s.
Test positivity figures are also increasing on the island. Over the past two weeks, the positivity rate has risen from 4.1 percent to 9.2 percent.
According to the data, Oak Bluffs has accounted for 27 cases in the past 14 days. The city has a positive rate of 6.08 percent. Tisbury has reported 28 cases in the past 14 days, with a positive rate of 3.77 percent.
On Tuesday, the state reported 4,906 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19, with a positive rate of 7.45 percent, and an estimated 90,975 active cases across the country. There were 67 new deaths, a total of 12,996 COVID-19 deaths since March.
Updated to include current COVID numbers – Ed.