Health Care Workers At Lakeview Hospital Receive Moderna Vaccine
Dec 21, 2020, 12:00 PM | Updated: 12:52 pm
BOUNTIFUL, Utah – Health care workers at Lakeview Hospital in Bountiful began receiving their first round of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine Monday morning.
“We’re just super exited to get it done,” said Liz Barnes, a nurse at the hospital who was among the first to receive the Moderna vaccine.
Jacci Kennedy, director of critical care, called it a bittersweet day.
“We’ve seen a lot happen over the last nine-10 months, so it’s a very sweet day to see we are making progress within our health care community and community in general,” she said.
Coming on the heels of the Pfizer vaccine, the Moderna vaccine was FDA approved Friday and arrived Monday just one hour before inoculations started. Unlike Pfizer’s, Moderna’s can be kept in a normal fridge or freezer.
“With it just being easier to store, it’s going to be easier to get it to everybody in those rural communities,” Kennedy said.
Lakeview received 500 doses, but there are 600 employees to inoculate. The first shipment will take care of most, but not all.
“We will be able to vaccinate most of our employees today, tomorrow and Wednesday,” said Lakeview Hospital CEO Troy Wood. “We will apply for more. We will at that point be able to disseminate to community physicians.”
However, this week the focus is on those who work in the hospital. Already there is a sense of relief and hope.
“We are here to take care of people,” Kennedy said. “We are here to take care of our community, and we can continue to do so healthy.”
After Lakeview Hospital gets through 60% of the Moderna vaccine, it will be able to apply for a second shipment.
Ogden Regional Medical Center also received 500 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Monday.
Both Lakeview and ORMC are part of the MountainStar Health Network.
