COVID-19 vaccine

Vaccine to Roll Out to More Broward Hospitals Soon

NBC Universal, Inc.

As health care workers lined up for their COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday, in a few days, workers from other Broward hospitals could be getting their shots, too.

Latanya Forbes, with Memorial Healthcare, came forward as one of the first to get a shot.

“I wanted to kind of send a message out to the community how important this is going to be if we are to fight this pandemic, we need to get the vaccines,” Forbes said.

One woman who got the shot Tuesday actually had the virus before.

“It’s an absolute honor to get the shot. I am so happy to get the shot today and even more excited about all the health care workers coming through," said nursing supervisor Lotta Siegel, who spoke to NBC 6 several months ago when she contracted COVID. 

"Obviously, being that I already had COVID and being that my son had COVID, it was super scary at the time — dealing with COVID patients of all ages is even scarier — seeing that it's not ending," Siegel said.

Broward hospitals are getting good news about the vaccine supply on day two of the rollout.

Memorial Healthcare said that each day, the volume of doctors, nurses, and other critical staff members will increase as they can give out 120 shots an hour at a location they have set up in Miramar. Workers are going online to schedule their vaccine shots.

“This just gives you and a little extra layer of confidence that we will make it through this fight,” Forbes said.

Memorial says it's going to use about one-third of the shipment it received Monday and so it will be able to help other hospitals in Broward quickly.

”We have a vaccination wave for our employees—our first line employees—and we are also ready to help our community hospitals," said Dr. Dorinda Segovia of Memorial Heathcare System.

The five hospitals that will be given the vaccine are Broward General, Holy Cross, Westside Regional, Cleveland Clinic and the Florida Medical Center.

They will share 12,500 doses. Those getting the shots are returning to shifts and back to the reality that the virus hasn’t gone anywhere.

“This is a first opportunity to get light say we have an ability to really combat this,"  said Alberto Augsten with Memorial Healthcare.

How soon will these other medical centers get their share of the vaccine? Memorial Healthcare is setting up the logistics, and it could be done by the end of the week.

Contact Us