RiverMead held its third COVID-19 vaccination clinic on Tuesday with more than 300 residents and staff receiving either their first or second dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
RiverMead CEO Bill James said that number included approximately 230 independent living residents who qualified for the vaccine under Phase 1B who were given their first dose, as well as residents in the health center and assisted living who got their second dose.
“For the most part everyone in the health center and assisted living were already vaccinated,” James said during the first two clinics held on Dec. 22 and Jan. 12.
Tuesday’s clinic also included employees who either received their first or second shot. The fourth and final clinic is scheduled for Feb. 23.
“We’re going to be right around 70 percent of employees vaccinated,” James said. “I’d like it to be 100 percent by that’s not a realistic number.”
James said they had 100 percent participation among independent living residents at RiverMead who are currently at the facility, as some winter in other locations.
James said some independent living residents had gone through the state signup for the vaccine with varying degrees of success, with the earliest appointment he heard of being Feb. 5, while others reported later in the month and even March. But having the clinic on site for all those who wished to receive the vaccine made a big difference.
“It’s safer, more convenient and less stressful,” James said. “To be able to do it here for our residents, that’s what we needed to do.”
James said there was concern leading into the clinic due to the storm, so RiverMead rented rooms at the Jack Daniels Motor Inn in Peterborough for CVS employees and RiverMead staff who wished to be closer.
“We wanted to make the rooms available and several of them took us up on it,” he said. “We did everything we could to make sure it was pulled off.”