First COVID-19 vaccines given in Riverhead

Frontline workers at Peconic Bay Medical Center started receiving COVID-19 vaccines today at the Riverhead hospital.

PBMC Emergency Department personnel were first to be inoculated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Dr. Nicholas Palamidessi was the first to roll up his sleeve and be vaccinated this afternoon. RN Kristen Hansen administered the shot.

“It feels great to kind of set the stage and go in the right direction to tackle this disease,” Palamidessi said, noting this was “a big historic event in healthcare.”

“I’m constantly seeing patients every day,” the doctor said. “So the earlier I can get vaccinated and continue to take care of patients with COVID the better,” he said. The vaccination requires two doses, with the second shot required three weeks after the first.

Members of hospital staff and administration gathered to watch the first vaccination in the shell space adjacent to the emergency department — space which will accommodate a future expansion of the department and which is being outfitted and equipped to handle COVID patients if necessary as the winter progresses.

“There are no words for how exciting this is,” said PBMC deputy executive director Amy Loeb, who was one of a group of hospital staff and administrators on hand to watch the vaccinations commence.

“It has been quite a year and to be ending the year with light clearly at the end of the tunnel is exceptional,” Loeb said. It was particularly fitting that “an emergency physician who’s been at the front of the front lines all these months” was first to get the shot at PBMC.

Over the course of 2020 PBMC has had hundreds of COVID-19 inpatient admissions patients and “well over a thousand” patients “across the emergency department patient.

Loeb said when the box containing the vials of the vaccine arrived, it was a very emotional moment.

The first shipment of the vaccine arrived at PBMC this morning before 10 a.m.

“This is a historic day for medicine and science on the East End,” PBMC president and CEO Andrew Mitchell said. “We are thrilled to be the first hospital to receive the vaccine and ensure the safety of our frontline healthcare heroes as they continue to provide exceptional care during this pandemic “

New York State has been allotted 170,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine, with the first shipment arriving yesterday. The first person to be vaccinated in the U.S. was a Northwell Health nurse yesterday morning at L.I. Jewish Medical Center. The event was attended by Northwell Health president and CEO Michael Dowling and, via Zoom, N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The state will receive 360,000 doses of the vaccine developed by Moderna next week, Cuomo said yesterday.

Under the state’s vaccination plan, the vaccine will be distributed first to frontline workers, nursing home workers and nursing home residents.

Peter Blasl contributed reporting.