A year after that first Coronavirus case, Dr. Martin-Klinger is hopeful for the future. Author: Paul Murphy / Eyewitness News Published: 6:36 PM CST March 8, 2021 Updated: 8:29 PM CST March 8, 2021
NEW ORLEANS March 9, 2020 marked the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic in Louisiana.
That’s when a patient being treated for pneumonia at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in downtown New Orleans tested positive for the virus.
“I don’t think it occurred to us that it could be so close to home because there were no other patients in this state,” Dr. Caitlin Martin-Klinger said.
Dr. Martin-Klinger called that first COVID case in the state the canary in the coal mine.
Staff at VA hospital receive the first round of COVID vaccines in New Orleans
In five days last week the hospital was able to vaccinate 1,000 people, mostly VA health care workers or high risk veterans, a part of the long term care facility. Author: Paul Dudley / Eyewitness News Published: 10:37 PM CST December 21, 2020 Updated: 11:15 PM CST December 21, 2020
NEW ORLEANS The first week of the Covid-19 vaccine roll out at the Veterans Affairs Hospital New Orleans, one of five VA facilities in the country to administer the vaccine, went better than anticipated as hundreds of health care workers and a handful of veterans received the first of two shots during a busy and often emotional few days last week.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, right, talks with Debbie Ford, MSN, RN, center, chief nursing officer with Ochsner Medical Center, as she gets ready to receive the first coronavirus vaccine from Dr. Mona Moghareh, left, on Monday, December 14, 2020. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
Veterans, healthcare workers at VA Medical Center receive first doses of COVID-19 vaccine
Forty staff members and six veterans from the long-term care facility were given the first of two shots of the newly released vaccine. Author: Paul Dudley / Eyewitness News Published: 10:31 PM CST December 14, 2020 Updated: 10:31 PM CST December 14, 2020
NEW ORLEANS A handful of veterans and dozens of medical staff members at the New Orleans Veteran Affairs Hospital received the COVID-19 vaccine Monday afternoon, a historic moment in what medical leaders are calling a turning point in the deadly pandemic.
Inside a basketball gym in the hospital, 40 staff members were given the first of two shots of the newly released vaccine. Six veterans from the long-term care facility also received the shot. Christine Aucoin, a registered nurse from Metairie, was the first person at the VA to get the shot.