Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Tristan Lotz | 210412-N-ME396-1003 GROTON, Conn. (April 12, 2021) Hospitalman Ethan Orshanski...... read more read more
GROTON, Conn. – The Naval Submarine Base (SUBASE) New London community officially entered Phase 2 of COVID-19 vaccination efforts April 12, as Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Unit (NMRTU) Groton began supporting the scheduling and administering of vaccines to all authorized family, retiree, and veteran beneficiaries ages 18 and up.
When the vaccine first became available, the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Navy prioritized first responder, mission critical, and the most vulnerable personnel in accordance with an established schema. SUBASE New London and NMRTU Groton administered hundreds of vaccine doses to those personnel in large-scale, mass vaccination events. An April 1 event, coordinated jointly with the Connecticut National Guard, proved that mass vaccination efforts at the base gymnasium could safely and effectively deliver 1,000 doses to military members at one time. Now that a large portion of the personnel in Phase 1 of the schema have been vaccinated and sufficient doses have become available, the vaccination of eligible beneficiaries has become possible.
“Up to this point, we’ve done over 7,000 vaccines, but it was primarily active duty on base and a few 75 years or older beneficiaries,” said Chief Hospital Corpsman Kevin Sweeney, admin chief at NMRTU. “Opening it up to everyone, spouses and retirees can now get the vaccine themselves.”
With the shift to this new phase of the schema and its new audience of vaccine recipients, NMRTU Groton is initially exercising a deliberately restrained approach to delivering shots into arms. Rather than the large, mass vaccination method, NMRTU Groton is administering vaccine at the clinic and through an on-line, appointment based method that allows for the additional administrative complexities of beneficiary vaccination. For the first day, NMRTU had exactly 100 doses available; but for subsequent days, the number of available vaccines will vary.
“We’ll do a different amount of shots every day,” said Hospitalman Justin Dowlingkules. “It will depend on how many we’ve scheduled and how many we have available. We always pull a certain amount of vials. Each vial has 10 doses, but sometimes we get an 11th dose because they overfill it.”
Of course, whether it’s been through 1,000 dose mass events or the more reserved 100 doses at the clinic, NMRTU’s corpsmen, doctors, civilian nurses, and support staff have been volunteering long hours supporting vaccinations to defeat the pandemic. Corpsmen from all different departments of NMRTU gave their support to vaccination efforts.
“Our corpsmen are almost all volunteers,” said Kim O’Reilly, NMRTU’s occupational health nurse who herself was volunteering as the acting immunizations nurse. “We have more nurses that have stepped up and volunteered to support as well. Together we’ve developed a great process that’s allowed us to tackle a Herculean effort, and to move forward in this next step is wonderful.”
The effort and teamwork by NMRTU Groton has not gone unnoticed by the base leadership.
“From Commander Tim Brender, the clinic officer in charge, and the doctors serving in the Public Health Emergency Officer roles, to the corpsmen, nurses, and staff delivering and managing putting shots into arms, NMRTU Groton has been an outstanding team supporting the no-fail missions of SUBASE and our personnel and families,” said Capt. Todd Moore, commanding officer of SUBASE New London. ”I know they’re all encouraged by this welcome opportunity for beneficiary vaccination and as we take this next step in contributing to community immunity, I hope that our family members, retirees, and veterans getting vaccinated thank the clinic team for their dedicated efforts.”
For one such beneficiary, getting the vaccine was not only a welcome and safe opportunity but also an opportunity to help move the base, state, and nation back to normal.
“After my son got the vaccine and didn’t have any issues, I figured it would be safe for me to get it,” said Marvin Troelsen, a Navy civilian who works for the Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion, and Repair in Groton. “My parents both got the vaccine and were fine. I think we should get vaccinated to the point where we can achieve herd immunity and get back to some semblance of normal.”
Dependents and authorized beneficiaries may schedule an appointment to receive the vaccine by visiting https://informatics-stage.health.mil/COVAX and selecting a date.
| Date Taken: | 04.12.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 04.15.2021 13:04 |
| Story ID: | 393931 |
| Location: | GROTON, CT, US |
| Web Views: | 406 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, NMRTU Groton Opens COVID-19 Vaccines to authorized civilian beneficiaries, by PO2 Tristan Lotz, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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