First doses of COVID-19 vaccine injected at CGH

STERLING – Just over 9 months since the first case of the coronavirus was reported in Whiteside County, the first COVID-19 vaccine was administered Thursday morning at CGH Medical Center, marking a significant turning point in the pandemic that has gripped the Sauk Valley.

The state on Monday received 66,000 doses of its first 109,000 dose-shipment of the vaccine developed by the drug companies Pfizer and BioNTech. The remaining 43,000 doses, reserved for the city of Chicago, arrived Thursday, Gov. JB Pritzker said at his daily briefing.

The vaccine is reported to be effective in 95% of the people who receive it, and in 94% of people older than 65. It requires two doses, the second of which is to be administered 3 to 4 weeks later.

Of the first vaccine shipment, 465 doses were reserved for Whiteside County, which ranks 11th on a list of 50 counties with the highest death per capita rate.

All doses arrived in the county Wednesday afternoon. CGH received 400 doses and Morrison Community Hospital collected 65 doses.

First injections at CGH started at 6:30 a.m. with a pair of health care personnel who work daily with COVID-19 patients: Dr. Jason Reter, a family medicine specialist, and Pat Zigler, a cardiac and critical care nurse.

Both Reter and Zigler in interviews following their injections said that they haven’t felt any side effects or pain from the shots, and that they were humbled to be among the first to receive the vaccine.

“We’ve been thinking about this day for quite a while,” Reter said. “To get vaccinated and protected from spreading this virus to other people — it’s a huge, bright day. It’s a way out of this pandemic.”

CGH is following a tiered system to administer vaccines to its employees. The first tier includes “any health care provider that is working directly with COVID patients and is at a high risk of exposure to the virus,” CGH Chief Nursing Officer Kristie Geil explained.

Those employees range from respiratory technicians to physicians to critical care nurses to environmental services workers, Geil said.

Inoculations will continue through Friday and Saturday, and officials expect to administer six vaccines every 15 minutes, meaning about 130-150 doses will be administered per day.

“The number of doses we’ve received and the broad set of employees that will be vaccinated by the time end of the first round will help us maintain a healthy, vaccinated workforce,” Geil said.

Employees who receive their first dose this week are already scheduled to receive their second dose, shipments of which are expected to arrive in the following weeks.

“Before I even stood up from the chair, I already had a card with a date and time for my next dose,” Reter said.

CGH s not mandating that employees get the vaccine. Despite that, Geil said she hasn’t experienced any negative feedback from employees.

“We are strongly encouraging [employees get the vaccine] and are using a lot of education and talking with staff about importance of it and their concerns,” Geil said. “We’re having a good response without mandating it.”

Zigler, who has worked at CGH for more than 40 years, said she knew in the weeks leading up to the vaccine’s availability that she wanted to receive it.

“I understand that some people are scared,” Zigler said. “But after working with COVID patients, and seeing how the virus affects them, I felt like if I could pave the way to show others that its OK [to get the vaccine], then I wanted to do that.”

Zigler added that “everyone has to do what’s right for them,” but said she expects fellow healthcare workers who rose up to help care for COVID-19 patients will continue to do “everything we can do to protect ourselves and our patients.”

Volunteering to receive the vaccine will likely still be a feature when it is available to the general public, Reter said.

“But I would encourage anyone, within the hospital and within the community, to get soon it as soon as it’s widely available,” Reter said.

“For the good of the community, family, loved ones, the only way we’re going to stop the spread is if the virus has nowhere to go.

“The only way to do that on a national and a worldwide basis is giving the vaccine to as many people as possible. This time will end, this time can end, but it only if everyone commits together to getting the vaccine.”