Senior living communities in Warrenton received their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccination last week, a development they hope will signal a coming return to normalcy.
Residents and staff at …
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Senior living communities in Warrenton received their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccination last week, a development they hope will signal a coming return to normalcy.
Residents and staff at the Harbor Place and Oak Pointe assisted living communities received vaccinations provided by Walgreens pharmacists last Tuesday and Thursday. For nearly a year, the senior facilities have significantly restricted visits and activities to safeguard their residents, who are among the most vulnerable to the virus.
“We’re very excited. It’s been an ordeal, these last nine months,” said LaFonda Johnson, executive director of Harbor Place. “These are the people (the pandemic) is affecting most. Just because they’re 90 doesn’t mean they still don’t have life in them. Whatever it takes to keep COVID from getting here, we’re doing it.”
Donna Dieckman, a nurse at Harbor Place, said the facility has been lucky to avoid any COVID cases, but that the restrictions to keep it that way have been hard on residents. Even with limited visitations allowed, Dieckman said many families are reluctant to visit because they don’t want to risk accidentally exposing their loved one to COVID. Having vaccines will ease that fear.
Six staff members and 15 residents at Harbor Place received their first vaccine dose on Jan. 19.
At the larger Oak Pointe living facility, Executive Director Kristi Nunn said nearly all of the community’s 50 residents, and half of its staff, received their first vaccine dose Jan. 21.
Nunn said her facility’s strict controls have minimized COVID cases to only three, but agreed that keeping residents mostly separated from their families has been difficult.
“We’ve had to step in and be their family for 10 months,” Nunn commented. “We look forward to being able to see our residents reunite with their loved ones, and our residents are looking forward to being able to take bus rides and to be able to visit our local diners and shops again.”
Nunn added that social distancing and mask rules will still be enforced for some time after the vaccinations.
To celebrate the shots last Thursday, Oak Pointe staff gave party favors to everyone who got vaccinated, and decorated as if for a football party. A football-themed banner in the entry hall read “Team Oak Pointe is kicking COVID one shot at a time!”
Both Harbor Place and Oak Pointe have second doses of the vaccine already scheduled for February. Managers at both facilities said they were able to arrange their vaccinations through an online registration, but that it was weeks between registration and actually getting the vaccine.
