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Erie County searching for healthcare professionals interested in becoming COVID-19 vaccinators
Physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, pharmacists, paramedics, emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and dentists can all apply. Author: WGRZ Staff Updated: 5:16 PM EST December 21, 2020
ERIE COUNTY, N.Y. During a press briefing Monday afternoon, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz and Erie County Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein provided some information about the COVID-19 vaccines.
As of Monday, Burstein says the initial doses of the vaccine have gone out to the hospitals and nursing homes - not the county health department.
Burstein says the county is actively planning for the COVID-19 vaccine distribution; however, she notes that it will be several months until the general public gets vaccinated due to a supply chain issue.
Phase one of the vaccine rollout now includes more groups
Nursing homes have vaccine doses and now other groups can get the vaccine, including EMTs and funeral home workers. Author: Claudine Ewing Updated: 8:05 PM EST December 21, 2020
BUFFALO, N.Y. Nursing home residents and healthcare workers are known to be among the first to be receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, but they re not alone.
Other frontline workers are now being included, including funeral home directors and emergency medical technicians (EMTs).
Nursing homes have already received vaccine doses, according to the Erie County Health Commissioner. Initial does have been delivered to hospitals and nursing homes, said Dr. Gale Burstein.
The Erie County Health Department has loosened the rules on who has to quarantine when thereâs a positive case of Covid-19 in school.
Since September, the county has taken a conservative approach and ordered 14 days of quarantine for anyone who was in a classroom with an infected person for 60 minutes or more.
But now, with lower transmission rates being found in the schools, Erie County has backed off those guidelines. Instead, it will require quarantine for anyone within 6 feet of an infected person for more than 10 minutes.
That change should reduce the number of students and staff forced to miss out on in-person instruction â focusing just on those who came close to an infected person, rather than everyone in the room. It may also keep schools from having to close temporarily because too many staff are forced to quarantine at home.
Erie County contact tracers are back on their game according to county
Tracers have doubled since November
Erie County contact tracers are back on their game .
and last updated 2020-12-17 23:14:19-05
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) â The amount of Erie County contact tracers has nearly doubled in a month.
âWeâre back on our game and once again extremely efficient,â said Dr. Gale Burstein, Erie Countyâs Health Commissioner.
This comes after the county saw a severely depleted contact tracing force last month, as cases began to rise.
In November, the county said it was experiencing a contact tracing shortage. Cases, started to spike, and the contact tracers, who are employees in other departments of county government had gone back to their regular positions.