Local Health Center Administers COVID-19 Vaccine to Staff
For Immediate Release January 22, 2021
CONTACT: Marisol Murphy-Ballantyne
Marisol.Murphy-Ballantyne@CCIWEB.org
Local Health Center Administers COVID-19 Vaccine to Staff
CCI Health & Wellness Services Offers Moderna Vaccine to Staff and Soon to Patients
Silver Spring, MD– Community health center, CCI Health & Wellness Services (CCI) began administering the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to staff at their headquarters located in Silver Spring this week. They will start vaccinating patients at CCI’s Gaithersburg, Takoma Park, and Greenway locations on January 26 following the state’s priority protocol. CCI has worked closely with Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, and the Maryland Department of Health to offer the local community access to care throughout the COVID pandemic, including flu vaccinations and COVID-19 testing. By administering the COVID-19 vaccine to both staff and patients, CCI is fortifying them for the next leg of this ongoing battle–mass vaccination–and maintaining health access for our more than 30,000 patients, many of whom are from high-risk, underserved populations.
CCI staff receives COVID-19 Vaccine
Photo by Marisol Murphy-Ballantyne
“The COVID vaccine is an important part of slowing the spread of the virus. We are grateful to be able to use the Moderna vaccine doses we received from the health department to vaccinate our staff who wish to receive it,” said CCI Chief Medical Officer Dr. Melissa Clark. “We are also getting ready to vaccinate our patients, following the MDH COVID Vaccine dissemination plan, starting with those 75 years and older. I encourage everyone over the age of 18 to get the vaccine, but we will still need to wear masks, use proper handwashing and physical distancing to help us slow down the COVID infection rates.”
Vaccinating community health center staff and patients could not be more critical to keeping communities safe, especially as efforts to vaccinate more of the population seems to be ramping up. Just last week, the incoming White House Administration included Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) like CCI in its proposal to fight health disparities in the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Within the first month of our Administration, we are going to deploy mobile clinics, moving from community to community, that will partner with Community Health Centers and local primary care doctors to offer vaccines to hard-hit and hard-to-reach communities,” said President Joe Biden.
“CCI accepts President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s charge to achieve Health Equity under the newly announced American Rescue Plan. We are with the new administration in the fight against COVID-19 and warmly welcome them back to the DMV area,” said CCI Chief Executive Officer and President Sonya Burton, Psy. D., MPA.
The Montgomery County Health Department included CCI staff in their healthcare worker vaccination effort in late December after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. The Maryland Department of Health has now begun direct shipments of vaccines to CCI for patient and staff use. CCI received 100 doses of the Moderna vaccine last week to complete staff inoculation and 200 doses this week for patient deployment.
“The state of Maryland has given to us what we seek to give our patients – empowerment and protection,” said Dr. Bruton. “We have the ability to support employee health without the disruption to patient care that came with responding to vaccine availability with less than 24 hours’ notice.
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CCI Health & Wellness Services
CCI Health & Wellness Services is a 49-year-old Federally Qualified Health Center that serves 60,000 medical patients and Women Infant’s & Children (WIC) participants in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties. As a 501(c)3 non-profit, CCI is committed to providing high-quality, affordable primary healthcare to every patient across all life stages. Visit www.cciweb.org for more information.
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