Clinic receives vaccine shipment

The rollout of COVID-19 inoculations continued last week when the Quay County Family Health Center in Tucumcari received a shipment of the new Moderna vaccine.

Presbyterian Medical Services Administrator C. Renee Hayoz said the clinic gave 80 doses of the vaccine last week and planned 20 more on Monday.

"It's nice for us to be able to offer this vaccine to community members," she said. "It's something I'm glad we can offer to rural New Mexico."

In addition to clinic staff receiving the vaccine, Hayoz said doses were offered to frontline, essential workers such as law enforcement, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, hospital transportation staff, people working in congregate settings, direct medical care, home health and hospice workers, pharmacists and nursing homes.

Doyle Frasier, 86, was among seven people waiting outside the clinic last week to get the vaccine the first day it was offered. He is a manager for the Ministry of Hope and ECHO food program, and he helps distribute food commodities in the county.

Frasier, who said he has no health issues, said it was "a relief" to get the shot.

"I've been wanting this, been looking for it, since day one," he said. "I'm all for it. I don't want to come down with it and be quarantined and not do what I'm supposed to be doing."

Hayoz said she'd heard the clinic would get more shipments of the vaccine but didn't have specific dates when that would happen.

"I hope we get it soon," she said Thursday. "We've been getting a lot of phone calls from people wanting the vaccine. Hopefully by next week we'll get a shipment in, but that's still up in the air."

She said the clinic probably would keep getting Moderna vaccines in future shipments because it doesn't require ultra-cold temperatures for storage, unliked the Pfizer vaccine.

Hayoz said she and other people who received the Moderna shot reported a sore arm as the only side effect.

"I just took a Tylenol, and it went away," she said of the arm pain. "The flu shot for myself ... personally, my arm was sore for a lot longer than the COVID (vaccine)."

Those who receive the Moderna vaccine must return in 30 days to receive a booster. Hayoz noted literature that comes with the Moderna vaccine cautions patients to be vigilant about avoiding the virus even after the first shot. The 90%-plus efficacy of the vaccine doesn't occur until after the second dose.

Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari, which received the first vaccines in the county in mid-December, continued to administer the Pfizer version last week. Vicki Gutierrez, administrator and chief nurse executive, said a total of 60 employees and contractors there have received the vaccine.

Gutierrez said sore arms and short-term fatigue were the most common side effects, if any, after the Pfizer shot.

She said it's a "week to week" situation on when new batches of the vaccine would arrive, but quantities so far have been in line with expectations.

Officials at Sunrise Medical Group and the Quay County Public Health Office, both in Tucumcari, contacted last week they had no immediate plans to receive or offer a vaccine.

During a briefing Wednesday, Secretary-designate Dr. Tracie Collins of the state's Department of Health said nearly 50,000 vaccines had been distributed to all areas of New Mexico through Dec. 27 and a little more than 41,000 administered.

Collins said 160,000 residents pre-registered for the vaccine in the first eight days after the signup page at cvvaccine.nmhealth.org went online. She said those who become eligible for the vaccine will be notified and given locations of nearby health centers where they can get the shot. Those who have pre-registered also will get the opportunity to update the database with chronic health issues or other conditions.

Healthcare workers at high to medium risk for contracting the disease were the highest priority to receive the initial doses of the vaccine. Collins said the agency was preparing for the next phases of the inoculations that would include frontline essential workers and the elderly.

She said she anticipated the first phase of the vaccine rollout would be finished in January. Phase 1 includes healthcare workers, long-term care facilities, first responders, inmates, those with disabilities in group homes and residential treatment centers. Phase 2 that includes older patients and those with underlying conditions is tentatively scheduled to begin in February.

Asked by a reporter about a new, much more contagious strain of the virus that has emerged in Colorado, California and Canada, Collins said she was hopeful current vaccines "will suffice" as protection against it, but she and other health department officials were monitoring the situation.