PITTSFIELD â More than 1,000 health care workers have been vaccinated across the county, as Berkshire Health Systems speeds through its first allocated doses.
The hospital system plans to finish its first shipment by the end of day Wednesday, just one week after the vaccine arrived, according to spokesperson Michael Leary.
Hospital officials do not know when its second shipment will arrive and whether BHS might be impacted by Gov. Charlie Bakerâs announcement that the state will receive 20 percent fewer doses from the federal government than expected. Leary said it also is unclear whether the second shipment will contain the Pfizer vaccine or the newly approved Moderna vaccine.
PITTSFIELD â For the first time since the pandemic began, Berkshire Health Systems will allow patients who are dying from COVID-19 to receive a visit from a family member.
The revised guidance, published Friday, allows COVID-19-positive patients who are nearing the end of life to have a loved one visit for a half-hour.
The change was made to ease familiesâ âheartbreakingâ experiences of not being able to spend time in person with a loved one at the end of their life, spokesperson Michael Leary said.
âOur staff have been holding hands and sitting with end-of-life COVID patients since March, and that naturally has a great emotional impact on them,â he said. âWe cannot say enough about how our staff have shown such great compassion. and we now feel, with the proper precautions in place, we can open up visitation.â
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Margo Mazzeo, a nurse in the COVID-19 testing center, is the first to receive Pfizerâs COVID-19 vaccine Thursday, administered by infection control nurse Jamie Lander at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield.
photos by STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN â THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE
Registered nurse Nixon St. Bernard draws a dose of Pfizerâs COVID-19 vaccine into a syringe during the first round of hospital employee inoculations last month at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield.
EAGLE FILE PHOTO
Eight stations are set up for the first group of Berkshire Medical Center employees to receive Pfizerâs COVID-19 vaccine Thursday at the hospital in Pittsfield.
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The first COVID-19 vaccinations in Berkshire County were given Thursday at Berkshire Health Systems locations in Pittsfield, North Adams and Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
BHS spokesperson Michael Leary says around 470 employees were administered the first of a two-part injection series.
“We had asked through a companywide staff wide survey as to who would be willing to accept the vaccine, he explained. The vast majority of those people who responded did say yes, so we started scheduling them right away.”
Distribution is based on the state’s tiered system, starting with those in the 1A category.
“That is frontline workers who are in the most vulnerable, higher risk areas such as the emergency departments at our hospitals and our North Adams campus, the Urgent Care location that we operate, as well as our ICU and our COVID units,” said Leary.
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