ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — Health officials at the Rock Island County Health Department received their first dose of the COVID-19 dose on Wednesday January 5th. It was a day months in the making for Karey Baxter.
She says she’s excited to be taking this step. “It feels good. It feels like there is an end in sight. I feel lucky to get it and be able to start the process.”
After today all county health officials who chose to be vaccinated have been. It’s around 30 individuals.
Chief operating officer Janet Hill says for her it’s monumental after the very dark year that 2020 was. “We are doing our public health workforce because we will be the ones going out into the county to give the vaccines.”
The first mass vaccination in the county will take place January 12th. That will be for health care workers not associated with the hospital systems.
Hill says they will administer as many doses as they can get their hands on. “That will include dentists, dental hygienists, funeral home workers, and respiratory therapists. Any type of person that is in health care.”
Baxter says her shot was painless. “I didn’t even feel it. I wondered if it had happened, so it’s not bad.”
All people vaccinated were required to sit for 15 minutes after their vaccination to monitor for any reactions. Hill says this is due to the fact that this is the first bunch of people to get the vaccine.
Hill saying, “Because this is a new vaccine, so people have not had a chance to have an allergic reaction.”
There will be another mass vaccination on January 13th. That one will be at Hope Creek Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. All staff and residents that choose to be vaccinated then will be.
Hill says each vile of the Moderna vaccine has about ten doses inside while one Pfizer vile has about five. There have been reports of extra doses inside the viles. Hill says they are allowed to use those doses, but it has to be a full dose to be administrable and it must be given to someone that falls into the phase of people currently being vaccinated.
For Baxter, she’s proud of her shot and even more eager to help administer many more.