100 More Vaccinated In Vernon, Coronavirus Call Center Activated

VERNON, CT — Another 100 senior citizens received a dose of the coronavirus vaccine Thursday as Vernon officials continued their quests to offer the shots at the local level.

Thursday's clinic was offered at St. Bernard Church and followed a clinic last week at the Vernon Senior Center at which 204 vaccines were administered.

Vernon Town Administrator Michael Purcaro said the clinics illustrated the town's desire to be "on the front lines of public health. Vernon Mayor Daniel Champagne said town officials "just want to get people vaccinated."

Vernon officials have activated a "multi-lingual" call center to assist with vaccine administration and plan to "physically" visit other venues like senior housing complexes with the mobile unit in conjunction with Priority Urgent Care and Eastern Connecticut Health Network.

South Windsor resident Ruth Snyder said she had wrestled with the state's sometimes-cumbersome Vaccine Administrative Management System to "finally" get an appointment for her initial shot on march 22, but canceled it when she found out about the clinic in Vernon.

"I didn't feel a thing," Snyder said after the vaccination. "People have been worried and need to know they can go somewhere to get the vaccine, so this is great. I've been careful and have only seen family. I'l still relived to get it."

The Rev. Rick Ricard, the pastor at St. Bernard, said he was all too happy to host the clinic because it gave many anxious seniors a comfortable setting.

"The seniors in the church haven't been out much, so this is really their second home," he said.

Father Rick added, "It's familiar, safe and we're honored to host the clinic."

Other towns are beginning to join Vernon for the clinics. Ellington sent several volunteers Thursday.

Ellington Urgent Care owner Dr. Daksh Rampal said the efforts to get the public vaccinated have been "astounding."

Local officials said cumbersome aspects of the state system include:

• The system assuming seniors are compute savvy
• Language
• Phone numbers with busy signals
• Limited e-mail capability

The call center in Vernon is designed to assist those needing to set up vaccines with navigating the state system or getting them access to a local clinic.

Lt. William Meier of the Vernon Police Department, the local coronavirus response coordinator, said multiple languages are offered and volunteers have been stepping forward to both field calls and help with the vaccines.

The town of Vernon and Eastern Connecticut Health Network are hosting weekday virus vaccination clinics at Rockville General Hospital.

Here are the particulars:

• Vaccinations are by appointment only for eligible recipients. No walk-ins will be accepted.
• The clinic will be open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• Following current public health guidelines, vaccinations for the general public are only approved for people age 75 and older.
• People can sign up for an appointment via the state's Vaccine Administration Management System (VAMS) by visiting https://dphsubmissions.ct.gov/OnlineVaccine.

The Vernon call center number is 860-896-4568.