By Cathy Spaulding / cspaulding@muskogeephoenix Dec 17, 2020
Dec 17, 2020
Saint Francis Hospital Muskogee Director of Acute Care Services, Kim Walton, RN, fills out paperwork before receiving the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday. CATHY SPAULDING/Muskogee Phoenix
Emergency health care workers lined up inside Saint Francis Hospital Muskogee on Wednesday to get the county s first COVID-19 vaccinations. I think our emergency department providers are on the front line, and they don t always know when somebody presents, whether they have COVID or not, said Kim Walton, RN, the hospital s emergency room and ICU director.Â
The hospital received 390 vials of the vaccine, with six doses per vial, said Kristen Carollo, public information officer for Oklahoma Health Department District 7. She said that means 2,340 possible doses for Phase 1. During Phase 1, vaccines are available to health care workers providing direct inpatient COV
The first group of healthcare workers at Saint Francis in Muskogee got the Pfizer vaccine Wednesday.
A doctor and nurse were the first to get it in Muskogee. They said they’ve seen the tragic side of this pandemic and said today, they felt hope for the first time in months. It means a new year, a new beginning for us, hopefully moving out of the COVID-19 phase I hope, nurse Kim Walton said. Walton was the first staff member at Saint Francis Muskogee to receive the Pfizer vaccine. For her, the small Pfizer vial was than just medicine.
Walton was shocked to hear the vaccine came so quickly to their rural part of the state. Muskogee County has had 44 deaths and more than 5,000 positive cases of COVID-19 so far