Hundreds of nurses who specialize in providing dialysis treatment for chronic renal failure (CKD) patients have been vaccinated against Covid-19 today with the Pfizer vaccine.
The mass vaccination came after the Department of Health accepted the recommendation of the head of the Atlantis Health Care Group to upgrade critical personnel handling CKD cases to A-1, making Puerto Rico the first jurisdiction in the nation. when prioritizing said condition.
The president of the Atlantis Health Care Group in Puerto Rico, Dr. Rubette Harford, stated that “The vaccination process against Covid-19 will be conducted in stages in all our clinics, starting with the nursing staff providing direct care to patients. patients. We then move on to the biomedical staff, dietitians, social workers and maintenance personnel to ensure that dialysis services are provided uninterrupted. “
As he explained, the centers in Carolina, Aguadilla and Ponce will be used as a base to administer the first 400 vaccines to staff working in these clinics or those close to each of the above regions.
“The specialized management plan that has been developed is considering staggering the vaccine, it is clear that not all clinic staff will receive the vaccine on the same day. This enables us to monitor properly and to take the necessary measures in case an employee gets an adverse reaction. Moreover, in this way we can guarantee continuity of essential services for patients with renal failure, ”explains Dr. Harford explains.
Atlantis Health Care Group has approximately 700 employees who work in 16 dialysis units across the island, all of whom have credentials from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, for the acronym in English) and the Department of Health in Puerto Rico for the vaccination process.
“We thank the Department of Health for the speed with which it has responded to our claim, as patients diagnosed with chronic renal failure have severely compromised immune systems and are therefore very vulnerable to infections. In fact, 22% of the patients treated in our clinics who tested positive for Covid-19 were unable to overcome the virus. We hope that this vaccine will help stop the spread of the coronavirus and that we can return to normal in the near future, ”concluded the president of Atlantis.