Thanks to the arrival of more vaccine doses UConn Health was fast at work rescheduling and vaccinating its patients whose appointments between Feb. 1-8 were impacted due to national vaccine supply fluctuations.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of rescheduled patient vaccinations occurred by appointment only until 8:00 p.m. on Feb. 2 at UConn Health in Farmington at both 16 Munson Road and Outpatient Pavilion vaccination site locations. Hundreds are set to occur again on Feb. 3.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is to share these 975 first doses today and tomorrow with our patients,\u201d says Anne Horbatuck, VP of Ambulatory Services at UConn Health. \u201cWe are moving down the list of canceled patients starting with today\u2019s and moving forward to reschedule them as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI am feeling good that we can provide this precious resource to our 75 years and older patient population when we know the vaccine supply is scarce,\u201d shared Dr. Kim Metcalf, Primary Vaccine Coordinator for UConn Health\u2019s COVID-19 Vaccine Program.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful to see that we are able to provide vaccines to so many recipients who have been waiting and are excited to receive them,\u201d shared UConn Health CEO Dr. Andy Agwunobi.\u00a0 \u201cI cannot be more proud of our teams at UConn Health who have gone above and beyond during this rapidly evolving situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Agwunobi also stressed: \u201cThis herculean team effort with the state has allowed us to reschedule and vaccinate nearly 1,000 patients in a little more than one day! \u00a0We are so grateful for the commitment and close collaboration of the Governor\u2019s Office and the CT DPH in partnering with us to find solutions for our impacted patients.\u201d<\/p>\n
And patients sure were happy to get the phone call from UConn Health to learn that their canceled appointments were now available to be back on the schedule immediately.<\/p>\n Barbara Griswold, 92, of Avon is one happy rescheduled vaccine patient. She was accompanied to her rescheduled appointment by her daughter Deborah.<\/p>\n \u201cI just got in from shoveling, and UConn Health called us around 9:00 a.m.,\u201d says Deborah. \u201cI checked with the boss, my Mom, and she was ready to go for her vaccine!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was so surprised today, and it\u2019s wonderful. I am so happy to get it,\u201d exclaimed Griswold who only leaves the house currently to get her hair done each week. \u201cI\u2019d really like to go back to church.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to keep Mom around for as long as possible,\u201d says Deborah. \u201cThis vaccine is the first step.\u201d<\/p>\n And Griswold was very happy to learn the good news that the State, Governor and its National Guard all helped make the rescheduling solution happen for her.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s really nice and great,\u201d she shared as her son and grandson are both U.S. Army members.<\/p>\n \u201cThank God for them!\u201d also shared Elaine Darcy, 79, and Edward Darcy, 83, of North Granby who got their vaccine together at UConn Health.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got a call this morning to come in for vaccination. We are now both overjoyed because we were canceled for Feb. 4 but we now don\u2019t have to start over with getting new appointments,\u201d shared Elaine. \u201cWe are very relieved and excited. UConn Health\u2019s vaccine system worked very well. We are so appreciative, especially at our age.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been quarantined together for just about a year due to the virus,\u201d said Edward. \u201cNot getting COVID-19 at our age is our number one goal.\u201d<\/p>\n After learning the Governor and State helped make her 90-year-old Mom\u2019s canceled vaccination rescheduling possible Beayanka Pinckney-Naraine shouted: \u201cPraise the Lord!\u201d<\/p>\n Her mom Rometta Pinckney of Hartford was also thrilled to be finally getting vaccinated at UConn Health.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels good,\u201d said Pinckney who hasn\u2019t left her home or been able to return to her senior day center since March of last year due to the virus, and has had to undergo several COVID-19 tests due to exposures inside her home from healthcare workers providing medical care for her.<\/p>\n \u201cI am so relieved that my Mom is now going to be protected and that she didn\u2019t get the virus,\u201d says Pinckney-Naraine.<\/p>\n Farmington\u2019s Joan Rogers, 87, and Bob Rogers, 88, are longtime patients of UConn Health. Bob is also a UConn graduate from 1955 who majored in pharmacy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got the cancelation call this weekend, and wondered when will we get the vaccine now?\u201d said Joan. \u201cWe got the rescheduling call this morning, and now we know why UConn Health has the vaccines for us today! It\u2019s just fantastic not having to wait any more and makes us feel very good. It all turned out to be a very pleasurable experience at UConn Health.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been scary knowing how many people have passed away from the virus has been devastating. Thanks to vaccination today I think we are going to now make it!\u201d said Bob. \u201cHopefully getting vaccinated will get us some normalcy back into our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked if they knew the state and its national guard helped make their vaccination appointment a reality the Rogers both responded: \u201cAmen to that!\u201d<\/p>\n Initially, prior to the Feb. 2 rescheduling at UConn Health thanks to the swift assistance of the CT DPH, UConn also successfully provided those whose Feb. 1 and Feb. 2 first dose appointments were canceled with a rescheduling solution for this upcoming week at an alternative vaccination site in East Hartford.<\/p>\n Note, all other vaccine appointments scheduled beyond Feb. 8 at UConn Health \u2013 both first and second dose appointments<\/em> \u2013 are not impacted at this time. As we move forward, it is important to note that because of the ongoing uncertainty in vaccine supply, decisions will need to be made weekly as to whether any additional appointments will need to be canceled.\u00a0 UConn Health is continuing to work with all impacted individuals to find alternatives if cancellations are necessary. Also, UConn Health will be doing all that it can in the coming weeks to increase its future allocation from the state to be able to meet our community\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Snow nor shortages of vaccines could stop the State of Connecticut and its National Guard from finding a way to come to the rescue of hundreds of UConn Health patients anxiously awaiting the rescheduling of their canceled COVID-19 vaccinations this week. On Tuesday, February 2 early morning the CT National Guard delivered nearly a thousand first doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to UConn Health\u2019s COVID-19 Vaccine Program. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":168781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2231,1868,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1873],"class_list":["post-168779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-well-being","category-meds","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 11:09:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168779"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":168790,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168779\/revisions\/168790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/168781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168779"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=168779"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=168779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Vaccine-pt-Barbara-Griswold-IMG_8855-1-200x300.jpg\")
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