University Health begins administering COVID-19 vaccines to seniors in next phase of deployment

SAINT ANTHONY – Monday is the day so many people have been waiting as University Health started the morning delivering the Moderna vaccine to the general public.

The current goal is to vaccinate 1,000 people per day. While all Texans eligible under the first phase of the rollout can now receive the vaccine, Phase 1B prioritizes people 65 years of age and older and those who are at least 16 years old with an eligible health condition.

“It’s just you know, I can’t wait for this to be over,” said Janet Crystal, as she was one of the hundreds of people who started their day in line to get the shot.

Remember that you must make an appointment to be vaccinated.

“It’s a very exciting day, this is our opportunity to turn the tide, so we finally move on to the next offensive with the vaccine. The more vaccines we can provide to people, the more we can protect them from the pandemic, ”said Dr. Bryan Alsip, the University’s chief medical officer.

Right now, University Health is giving around 120 injections per hour and it really is the light at the end of the tunnel for so many people.

“We are happy with the very robust response for us, it helps the community, the more vaccines we can donate the more people we can protect,” Alsip said.

There are long lines, but they move quickly and that is because of the preparation and the orderly method of administering the vaccine.

“We wait until we arrive in the room to take their temperature, then we take the vaccines into ready-to-use syringes. These are the ten doses, the doses of vil that are ready to be administered, ”said Elliott Mandell, senior vice president and chief pharmacy officer at Health University, while explaining the process.

University Health released a statement and said it received an overwhelming response. They’ve already had the 11,000 vaccine appointments signed and completed – so they’re now waiting for more.

“We certainly hope to get more vaccines, right now we have scheduled all the appointments for the vaccine that we currently have, but the state has told us that we are using a vaccine that we will have more and we already have been in contact with them to receive vaccines in the future, ”said Alsip.

And after the first shot of Moderna, you wait 28 days for a second dose.

As for Janet and her family, that day couldn’t come soon enough.

“Hopefully the start of a new day so we’ll see,” Crystal said.