Durham, NC – A Navy veteran was the first Tuesday to receive the coronavirus vaccine at Durham Veterans Affairs Department Hospital.
Oliver Vick was one of 25 veterans of the Durham VA long-term care center who volunteered to receive the first dose of the vaccine. Vick said he considers it a duty to help defeat the virus, and was glad to serve his country once again.
“We’ve been captivated for too long by this virus,” he said. “This is just our way of fighting. It will make a big difference for everyone.”
On Tuesday, in Durham VA, 2,925 doses of Pfizer vaccine were obtained. It is among the 37 VA hospitals across the country chosen to receive the first shipments, and the tray trays were quickly unpacked and placed in ultra-cold freezers for storage.
“Our team is ready to roll out the vaccine tomorrow and our goal is to vaccinate all veterans and staff on Wednesday and possibly Thursday,” Melissa Durkee said. no pharmacy associate of Durham VA.
Paul Crews, director of Durham VA, said that, as in other hospitals, workers will be the main focus of early vaccination efforts.
“It’s important for us to make sure our high-risk healthcare workers get this vaccine to make sure we get them close to the vaccine later,” Crews said.
The Durham VA expects to see a second shipment of vaccines in late December or early January, which will allow staff to begin vaccinating veterans who do not live in the long-term care facility, officials said.
“We know we have over 70,000 veterans for whom we are responsible, and we will be vaccinated against those veterans,” Crews said. “I’m ready. We’ll move on.”
The vaccine was also sent Tuesday to Womack Army Medical Center in Fort Bragg.
Roni Paul, a former Army doctor who now works as an emergency nurse and nursing educator, was the first in line to get vaccinated.
“This is an important time for us at Fort Bragg,” Lieutenant General Michael “Erik” Kurilla, commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg, said in a statement. “We would not have arrived at this time without our first lifeguards, doctors, health workers and the amazing staff of the Womack Army Medical Center.”