GRAN NEW DAY
Vax a holiday gift for nursing homes — hope to hug grandkids
Rhoda Winkelman, 96, was one of the first New York nursing home residents to get the COVID-19 vaccine yesterday, at The New Jewish Home in Manhattan. It eventually means a return to hugs from granddaughters Jennifer and Samantha Greenstein, as in the good old days (below).
A 78-year-old grandfather in The Bronx on Monday became one of the first nursing-home residents in the state to get the COVID-19 vaccine — and said he’s counting on it to let him see his grandchildren again soon.
Kelley Dixon eagerly rolled up his shirt sleeve to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine at the Hebrew Home at Riverdale.
“Go for it,” Dixon told pharmacist Michael Zaretsky, who wielded the syringe — which the septuagenarian didn’t even seem to notice go in.
Dixon said he jumped at the chance to be inoculated because “I have a lot of faith in the scientists” — as well as plans for when the pandemic finally eases.
“I’m gonna go to Yonkers and see my grandkids,” he told WCBS/Channel 2 afterward.
While the Pfizer vials began rolling out to Empire State hospitals last week, Monday marked the start of vaccinations for residents and workers at 618 long-term care facilities across the state.
Nearly 7,400 New York state nursing-home residents have died because of the coronavirus during the pandemic, according to official figures — although an August investigation by The Associated Press estimated the actual number was likely greater than 11,000.
At The New Jewish Home on the Upper West Side, 96-year-old resident Rhoda Winkelman was among those inoculated Monday.
Winkelman’s son, Manhattan dermatologist Dr. Warren Winkelman, told The Post the pandemic has “been tough” on his mom, with whom he speaks by phone daily.
“My sister, who lives in Maryland, hasn’t seen her for almost seven months. It’s been very hard on her and her granddaughters as well,” he said of Samantha Greenstein, 25, and Jennifer Greenstein, 27.
“It’s really kind of heartbreaking, actually, because the youngest just graduated from law school just this week . . . That did bother her, it bothered her very much.”
Warren added: “That’s the torture of growing old and still keeping your faculties. She has full awareness and she knows this is a pandemic, but it doesn’t help make the separation and isolation any easier to live through.”
Under state guidelines released in September, nursing-home residents are not allowed to have any visitors younger than 18 — and while adults can visit, they are subject to strict limitations and requirements, including proof of having had a negative coronavirus test within the past seven days.
The two-dose vaccines are being administered on-site at nursing homes by staffers from CVS and Walgreens drugstore chains.
The first round of shots is expected to take about two weeks, Gov. Cuomo said Monday.
At The New Jewish Home, CEO Dr. Jeffrey Farber said Walgreens brought 700 doses for Monday’s injections, with 1,300 needed to inoculate all residents and staffers.
“The residents, on the whole, are more apt to embrace the vaccine, to be excited to get it,” he said.
“The residents haven’t been able to see their families and loved ones for months on end.”
But Farber added that a “sizable portion of the staff are worried about the vaccine and reluctant to get vaccinated right away and want to wait a little bit and see how it plays out.”
“We’ve been working really hard to communicate with the staff and encourage them in every way possible to take the vaccine,” he added.
Hebrew Home medical director Dr. Zachary Palace, who also received a shot, said that Monday marked “the day that we are able to do something proactive to help finally break this horrible pandemic.”
The 751-bed facility has had 52 resident deaths officially blamed on the coronavirus, but staffers have told The Post that they counted 119 total deaths during the first two months of the COVID-19 outbreak.