A Puerto Rican nurse was the first to be vaccinated in New Jersey

Washington DC – The Puerto Rican nurse Maritza Beníquez was the first person to oppose the coronavirus in the state of New Jersey, which he highlighted as an opportunity to emphasize to Latinos that the path to normalcy is to achieve immunity for a large portion of the population.

“I wanted to be in the front so my people could see me”, Beníquez said in a phone interview with today The new day.

More than 18,000 people have died in New Jersey from the coronavirus, which has had a particularly hard impact on Latino and black communities.

Beníquez’s vaccination, which took place on Tuesday, coincided with his birthday.

Beníquez’s family was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, and lives in Isabela.

Beníquez has worked at Newark University Hospital for the past five years.

Since March, he said, it has been very difficult to relate closely to the coronavirus emergency, which has claimed the lives of more than 305,000 people in the United States. According to him, 11 employees died in his hospital.

“You help keep someone alive so that you can give them back to their family. I can only imagine the pain families have felt when a family member dies, not because of an expected illness, but because a virus stole them, ”he said.

The Puerto Rican nurse confirmed that she did not feel the injection Mars gave her, but she was moved once she was vaccinated because of what it means for the safety of her children, her other family members, her own patients, and herself. Beníquez already has an appointment to give the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on January 4.

‘I felt safe. I am crazy for they give me the second dose because I know I am not at risk of infecting myself or influencing others. I want to visit my family, give my grandmother a hug (in Isabela) and feel that family warmth again, ”he added.