U.S. With the first coronavirus vaccine approaching in Ochsner, health officials said Friday they are preparing to inoculate thousands of frontline workers into their 40-hospital system, while also increasing the number of Covid-19 patients admitted to hospitals across the state.
Ochsner will receive 9,375 doses of the vaccine in the first shipment expected as early as Sunday or Monday. The vaccines will reach three hubs: 5,125 at the Jefferson Highway campus in New Orleans, 1,325 at Shreveport and 2,975 at Lafayette, according to Debbie Simmonson, vice president of pharmaceutical services at Oxner. Those places have ultra-cold freezers, which will keep the vaccines at the required -70 જરૂરી C.
A nurse holds a Pfizer-Bioentech COVID-19 vaccine vial on December 8, 2020 at Guy Hospital in London. (AP Photo / Frank Augustine, Pool)
Ochsner will then distribute his vaccine to other facilities across the state. In hospitals without ultra-cold freezers, the vials will be placed in the refrigerator, where they can last up to five days.
Oxner hospitals are ready to give shots within an hour of receiving the vaccine, Simmons said.
“You can take the vaccine out of the ultra-cold freezer and melt it in 30 minutes, then go ahead and start administering that vial to five different people – the vial has five doses,” Simmons said.
Shipment time depends on the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization, which is expected on Friday or Saturday. Once the vaccine, developed by Pfizer and Bioentech, is approved, the federal government will ship it out within 24 hours.
As the largest hospital system in the state with 26,000 employees, Ochsner will be in charge of coordinating more vaccinations than any other hospital system, the first test of the huge vaccine rollout expected to run by 2021. Ochsner owns, operates or is affiliated with 40 hospitals in Louisiana and Mississippi, including several hospitals in the Lafayette, Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Bay St. Louis and New Le Reliance area. The system also runs more than 100 clinics.
Determining who the next workers are to inoculate – including doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, technicians and sanitation staff in places such as emergency rooms and intensive care units – is left to hospitals.
In August Gust, Reynold Verrett, president of Xavier University, rolled up his sleeve and received a shot as part of a coronavirus vaccine clinical trial.
Dr. According to Sandra Camerley, Oxner prefers employees based on the risks they come in contact with, COVID units offer admission first, followed by emergency department and emergency care personnel.
“All the people who work in these covid units, regardless of their role, will be vaccinated,” Camerley said. “It’s not just reserved for unit doctors; it’s everyone working there.”
Preference for vaccination does not take into account certain health conditions, which have been shown to significantly increase the risk of serious illness and death in COVID-19 patients.
“As an employer, we shouldn’t know people’s personal health information,” Camerley said. “For this group of health care workers, it’s based on virus infection, not your underlying health problems.”
Employees in the Covid units, emergency department and emergency care will receive a message notifying them that a vaccine is available. They will then be asked to sign up and complete the paperwork before being vaccinated. Like the flu shot, vaccination is not necessary, but it is recommended.
Pfizer coronavirus vaccine U.S. In the trial, Oxner Health is enrolling Louisiana children between the ages of 12 and 17, as drug manufacturers regularly close.
The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses given 28 days apart. Oxner is not planning to keep the supply separate for the second dose as weekly shipments are expected. The vaccine is 95% effective seven days after the second dose, shortly after the first shot is given. It is not clear how much protection a single dose can provide.
On Friday, doctors stressed the safety of the vaccine, which allayed fears that it had developed too quickly.
“No corners have been cut in terms of safety,” said Dr. Chasner, medical director of infection control and prevention. “Many things were done at once with this vaccine. Instead of doing one thing for six months and a year, everything was done very quickly and brought to market at the same time.”
The vaccine rollout comes as new Covid-19 cases reach new highs in Louisiana in the U.S., with 2,191 cases reported in the state on Friday and an additional 60-person hospitalization reported.
Warner Thomas, President and CEO of Met Ksner Health, Matairi, La. Thursday, December 3, 2020. (Photo by Max Baker, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayun | The New Orleans Advocate)
“We continue to see an increase in cases and hospitalizations,” said Warner Thomas, CEO of Ochner. “At Oxner around our facilities today, we have about 330 COVID-19 inpatients. That’s up from 250 a week ago.”
Warner expects more hospitalizations next week due to the holiday.
According to Governor John Bell Edwards, Louisiana hospitals are expected to receive approximately 79,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine by the end of December. It is available in U.S. Approximately 1.46% of the supply is allocated based on Louisiana’s adult population. Following the state’s coronavirus vaccine playbook guidelines, the first vaccines will go to frontline health care workers in hospitals.
As many as 215,000 people in the state are in the first priority group, according to a report from the Louisiana Department of Health. About 75,000 to 80,000 nursing home residents and staff are included in that group, which includes 125,000 to 135,000 health care workers. Residents and staff at long-term care facilities are expected to receive the modern vaccine, which goes before an FDA panel on December 17 and is expected to be authorized soon.
Ochsener officials said they expect the vaccine to be available to patients and some essential workers in certain risk categories from January and throughout the spring, but that depends on the supply the state receives.
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