COVID-19 Vaccinations

hillcountryweekly.com

Thursday, January 7

COVID-19 VACCINATIONS

Moderna comes to My Urgent Care and Kronkosky Place

Each vial holds ten doses that must be used within six hours of the first dose given.

Christina Ryrholm Hill Country Weekly

On Monday morning of this eek the Kronkosky Place as bustling with activity for he first time in many months. s the home of the Rainbow enior Center, it is has long een the hub of activities and eals for the seniors of Kendall ounty. With the COVID 19 andemic and out of an abunance of caution the Center has een forced to be creative in ays to provide a limited range f services. This need to adapt to unexected changes was paramount ast week when Olivia Burdick, xecutive Director, was asked f Kronkosky Place would be ble to handle 400 people to eceive doses of COVID 19 oderna vaccinations. Within our days plans were in place or Kronkosky Place, My rgent Care, the county and ity to send out the informaion through social media and obo calls at 9 a.m. Sunday anuary 3. The database alone or Kronkosky was over 6000 ames. There were over 5000 alls within three hours and by oon that day all 400 doses had been accounted for. The vaccination marathon took place on Monday January 4.

Olivia Burdick, Executive Director Kronkosky Place, over saw Operation 400 Doses that were given to seniors and volunteers on Monday January 4.

My Urgent Care on River Road, as of now, is the only medical care facility that went through the “long and arduous process to fill out the detailed application” and to purchase the two data loggers (one is a backup) that records the temperatures of the refrigeration”. Tamara Perry, Clinic Manager, commented that Dr. John Turner, owner of the clinic, felt it was important to go through the certification process to give back to the community.

Clinic Manager for My Urgent Care Tamara Perry leads the team that is vaccinating Kendall County residents in the first of two doses ofModerna.

One reason that Kronkosky was asked to participate in the vaccination effort was because of their ability to reach out to the senior citizens and that they have a large enough facility to handle a greater volume in a single day. Each vaccine vial contains ten doses and once one dose is given the vial is viable for six hours. With four stations operating simultaneously 40 individuals could be vaccinated every half hour.

Not all the seniors that received the first dose also participate in the food distribution

offered by Kronkosky, but Olivia said that it was important to vaccinate both the Meals on Wheels drivers and the seniors the receive the meals in order for there to be personal interaction between the individuals. The isolation and the lack of socialization has taken a “devastating toll” on many of the seniors. Although it is important to take care of the basic need of nutrition the lack of human contact is just as necessary to address.

The Meals on Wheels program delivers to 250 people every day Monday through Friday and if needed also leave frozen meals for weekends and holidays. Approximately 70,000 meals were served this year.

The actual allocation of the vaccinations is handled at the state level by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). After My Urgent Care was notified of the allocated 1000 doses and they accepted that amount is was a wait until they were informed that the shipment was on the way. After this notification is made then the vaccine will arrive frozen within 24 hours.

Then it has to be thawed in the refrigeration unit and is good for up to thirty days. Locally the shipment arrived on December 28 and was fully dispensed by today, January 7.

Besides the 400 senior citizens, all first responders and many medical staff who wished be vaccinated have received their first dose. The second dose will be given in 30 days and My Urgent Care has already been notified and accepted that allocation.

Both Olivia and Tamara knew that the response to the availability would be a large number but were amazed at the overwhelming demand for the vaccinations. Both places were working procedures out as they went along and realize the need to be able to reach out to everyone - even those that do not have access to social media.

The best way to stay informed about COVID and the availability of the vaccine is through the Facebook pages for Kronkosky Place and My Urgent Care and the county and city websites.