VACCINES DELIVERED
Homebound Trenton residents to get J&J vax as part of outreach program >>
TRENTON >> For Vivian DeRivera, the fear of COVID-19 was crippling.
“It’s horrific. You’re afraid to go out the door,” she said. “I go in my yard, I’m afraid to breathe.”
DeRivera can breathe a little easier — provided still with a mask on — after she became the first Trenton resident to receive an inhome vaccination.
A team of experts traveled to her Mott Street home Monday to administer the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as part of an outreach program dedicated to inoculating 1,000 homebound residents.
Mayor Reed Gusciora and Dr. Adela Ames-Lopez looked on while DeRivera got her shot.
“Get vaccinated everybody. Because better safe than sorry,” DeRivera said, before a nurse plunged the needle into her arm.
She’s used to self-administering shots, but this one stung a bit.
“Oooh that hurt. You hurt me more than I hurt me,” DeRivera joked with the nurse administering the shot.
“You are all set to go,” the nurse said.
Despite the temporary discomfort, DeRivera said she was overjoyed when she learned from Meals on Wheels that she wouldn’t have to leave her home to get the vaccinated.
“Is that for real they’re coming to my house to do it? Thank God. This is a blessing,” she said, adding she didn’t think she could have endured standing in long lines to get vaccinated. “I hate going out of my house.”
The city kicked off its homebound vaccination campaign at the 300-unit South Village living facility in Trenton’s South Ward before traveling to DeRivera.
Officials administered the single-dose J&J vaccine because it isn’t required to be stored at frigid temperatures and is easier to transport.
About 400 residents were signed up for the program, and officials hoped to vaccinate more than 100 people by day’s end.
They’re planning to visit high-density living complexes like Luther Arms, Kingsbury Towers, Trent Center East, Trent Center West and North 25 in the coming weeks.
“If you can’t come to us, we’ll come to you,” Mayor Reed Gusciora said.
DeRivera sat on her “dog chair” in her living room discussed the isolation that she jas experienced during the global pandemic with only her dogs to keep her company.
She said her family stops by “once in a blue moon” to take her grocery shopping, but for the most part they’ve avoided contact with each other to keep safe.
Her daughter was supposed to get vaccinated last week at the CURE Arena in Trenton but canceled at the last minute out of fear of being exposed.
DeRivera missed the birth of her 14th great grandchild who she has only seen in pictures.
Trenton has had 6,700 COVID-19 cases and 87 deaths. More than 215,000 people in Mercer County are vaccinated and about 12,000 of them are Trentonians, Ames-Lopez said.
About 41 percent of them are Black, 38 percent Latino and 20 percent white, Lopez said, adding Trenton’s numbers are better than the statewide average.
Gusciora said the city has seen a decrease in the number of residents who are hesitant to get vaccinated. He attribute it to several community-wide outreach efforts, including a FEMAled vaccine clinic at Iglesia Pentecostal Asamblea de Dios.
Residents interested in the vaccine should reserve a spot at covidvaccine.nj.gov. and contact the City Department of Health at 609989-3242 or covidvac@ trentonnj.org.