CCMH has vaccinated approximately one thousand employees against COVID to date! The first round of employees who received their first dose in mid-December received their second dose last week. The second round of employees who were vaccinated at the end of December will be receiving their second dose next week. We have also vaccinated several family members of CCMH employees aged 65 and older.
The second dose of the vaccine may cause a more robust immune response than the first – which means the potential for more side effects such as arm soreness, headache, body aches, chills, and low grade fever. These side effects, while they have the potential to be unpleasant, are temporary – most people feel much better within 24-48 hours after onset. Those who have had COVID in the past may suffer this robust immune response after the first shot rather than the second.
The COVID vaccine does not contain live virus and therefore will not cause you to have a positive COVID PCR or antigen test. Employees are also reminded that maximum efficacy of the vaccine is not in place until two weeks after the second dose of the vaccine. Individuals receiving the vaccine are still encouraged to do their part in mitigating the spread of the virus after receiving it, which includes wearing masks and social distancing. It is our hope that soon, after more of the community is vaccinated, we can begin to relax some of these mitigation measures, but until then, it is still important to protect ourselves and others as much as possible.
Elsewhere, CCMH continues to see many COVID positive patients requiring admission to the hospital. We are also seeing a record number of patients holding in the ED waiting for hospital beds. Safe, expedient discharges are a priority in the organization to promote throughput of patients and allow patients who need hospital beds to get into them as quickly as possible. We are not alone – hospitals across the state and likely across the nation share this same concern. Thank you for the tireless work you are doing to take care of these record numbers of patients needing our help!
