Staff receive COVID-19 vaccine at Elmhurst Hospital, early crisis epicenter
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Elmhurst Hospital Environmental Services Department maintenance worker William Kelly receives the COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday. Image via Mayor’s Office
By David Brand
Elmhurst Hospital, the former epicenter of the international coronavirus crisis, emerged as a symbol of hope Wednesday when two staff members received the medical center’s first doses of the new COVID-19 vaccine.
Emergency Room Physician’s Assistant Veronica Delgado and Environmental Services Department maintenance worker William Kelly were the first two employees to get the vaccine at the city-run hospital.
The shots came nine months after patients in need of critical COVID-19 care — many of them low-income immigrants of color — flooded the hospital, stretching the physical capacity of the medical center and straining the heroic doctors, nurses and staff members contending with the unprecedented pandemic.
At the same time, long lines formed outside Elmhurst Hospital as New Yorkers sought COVID tests inside a makeshift tent clinic first reported by the Eagle.
“Elmhurst Hospital has borne the brunt of the coronavirus crisis,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio Wednesday, just before Kelly and Delgado received the vaccines. “This is a heroic place.”
By March 24, Elmhurst Hospital was at 125-percent capacity, with 13 patients dying in a 24-hour period, Queens Patch reported at the time. Early accounts from the hospital shed light on the devastating impact of the coronavirus in largely immigrant communities of Elmhurst, Corona and Jackson Heights
“One of the toughest battles anywhere in the United States of America against the coronavirus happened here,” de Blasio said Wednesday. “The healthcare heroes did an extraordinary job against all odds.”
COVID-19 has since killed 24,561 New Yorkers as of Dec. 15, according to city data. A second wave of the virus has hit New York City, with hospitals once again filling with COVID-sick patients.
More than 1,600 New York City medical workers have so received the vaccine since the first shot was administered Monday at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, according to the city’s Health Department.
Delgado and Kelly were the first New York City Health + Hospitals staff members to get vaccinated. The preventive dose was the ultimate acknowledgement of city hospital workers’ role in fighting the pandemic, de Blasio said.
“H + H saved New York City,” he said.
