NEW SMYRNA BEACH Wednesday was the last day before the Christmas holiday to get tested for coronavirus at the state-run test site, and people began to line up before dawn, despite temperatures in the 40s.
When the testing began a few minutes before 8 a.m., about 75 people were waiting outside the New Smyrna Beach City Gym at 1000 Live Oak St. The earliest couple arrived at 6:30 a.m.
Kristi Emery and her husband lined up about 7:40 a.m. to get tested for the first time since the pandemic began. We don t have any symptoms. It s just a precaution, Emery said. Just to be safe for Christmas and not expose my father.
DAYTONA BEACH Sherry Jarrell has been a nurse for nearly 40 years, but she has never before experienced the stresses, challenges and emotional tolls that have become a daily reality since the coronavirus pandemic hit in March.
“This is the busiest I have ever been in my career,” said Jarrell, 60, the employee health clinic coordinator at Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach.
In that role, Jarrell supervises a four-member team that manages care for the members of Halifax Health’s workforce who have tested positive for the virus.
On Wednesday, Halifax Health received the first doses of coronavirus vaccine for hospital employees. It s a milestone that gives Jarrell a welcome sense of hope on Christmas Day.
DAYTONA BEACH There was applause on Wednesday in the Emergency Room at Halifax Health Medical Center, as the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine was administered to a member of the hospital’s medical staff.
A little after noon, Dr. Kent Harman, the hospital’s director of Intensive Care Services, rolled up his right sleeve for a .5mL injection of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine as a dozen or so hospital officials, frontline medical workers and media watched.
“It has been a long several months since March,” Harman said. “We’re very encouraged to have a vaccine that we know is effective.”