HOUSTON – As residents lined up at The Farrington at Tanglewood Friday morning, Marjorie Mcconn asked, “Am I number 1?”
Mcconn was the first resident to get her dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
“He probably called down for it,” she said, referring to her husband Jim.
Mcconn said her husband is in heaven now but was the Mayor of Houston from 1978 to 1982. She was one of more than 70 residents and staff at the location to get their vaccine Friday and she said it was easy.
“Our residents have been really anxious about getting their vaccine and literally I have some that have calendars, like every day they are coming down and checking, like, we have two more days, one more day and so they are really excited so we can get back to some sense of normalcy,” said Shandra Davis, who is the executive director at The Farrington at Tanglewood.
Luther J. Burleson was shortly after Mcconn. He commented on how he was feeling about having pharmacists come to their home to give them the vaccine.
“It’s exciting for us because we don’t have to get out in the cold, it’s right here in the same building,” Burleson said.
Marci Walters, the director of sales and marketing, also got her first dose of the shot.
“I mean I think it’s great, it’s important, I think anybody who works in a senior community should get it and I’m happy to do it, I’m happy to get it and I want to protect our residents, this is the right thing to do,” Walters said.
Gov. Greg Abbott has said there are more than 487,000 doses of the vaccine designated for nursing and long term care centers and has said that CVS and Walgreens are in charge of administering the doses. He said in the coming days he would like to see as many of those eligible, get vaccinated as quickly as possible.
“There is no reason for that process to be moving as slowly as it is,” Abbott said.
“So I think the speed is really fast and you know talking with friends in the industry who kind of went a little bit before us and it’s understandable because the patients and residents might be a little more fragile so I think we got it with a good sense of urgency and so we are excited with that,” Davis said.
Representatives with the Texas assisted living association have said they are hearing from their designated pharmacies through the federal programs, that they are waiting on more shipments of vaccines so that more patients can be vaccinated.