Wayne Woodlands Long-Term Care Residents, Staff Vaccinated

(January 12, 2021)… With their approval and their families’ knowledge, most of the 70 residents of Wayne Woodlands Manor, Waymart, received a COVID-19 vaccine today, as did many staff members, from CVS pharmacy personnel.  Long-term care communities have been especially hard hit by the pandemic, prompting the CDC and the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) to schedule them in the very first – Phase 1A—category for vaccinations.

“We feel this is a great start,” said Wayne Woodlands Administrator Michael Freund. “We continue to wear full PPE during resident care and follow social distancing protocols, but I hope this is the beginning of our journey back to normalcy, to receiving visitors and having group activities.”

Wayne Woodlands, like other nursing homes, has limited all group activities including dining-room services. Except for a few months, visitation has been suspended since last spring.

“To date, we have had no residents who tested positive for COVID-19,” Freund continued. “Staff are tested twice weekly and residents once a week as per CDC and DOH guidelines.”

The most current DOH statistics show there have been 57,724 cases of COVID among residents of long-term care facilities, 10,754 cases among staff and 9,418 deaths or about 50% of all deaths in the state so far.

Overall, the vaccines were well received at Wayne Woodlands, Freund said, adding, “We are very pleased that the CDC and the DOH were able to offer our residents and staff the opportunity to be vaccinated through CVS pharmacy so soon after the vaccines were approved.” Wayne Woodlands received the Pfizer-BioNTechn vaccine, which received emergency-use FDA approval in December.

Wayne Woodlands, a 121-bed skilled nursing facility, is a part of Wayne Memorial Health System.

For more information about Wayne Memorial’s COVID-related services, visit COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) – Wayne Memorial Hospital (wmh.org)

Covor Photo:  Wayne Woodlands resident Eileen Mazza receives a COVID-19 vaccine from CVS pharmacist L. Olster, RPh and LPN Donna Juice.

Photo:  Wayne Woodlands’ Sondra Holmes, physical therapist, is all smiles behind her mask as she receives a COVID-19 vaccine from a CVS Pharmacy staff member.