After much anticipation, Silvergate San Marcos, a premier San Diego County retirement community, announced today that the long-awaited first doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine were administered to residents, caregivers and staff on Sunday, January 17, 2021.
Licensed Vocational Nurses at Silvergate assisted incoming vaccine teams from Omnicare, the parent company to well-known retail pharmacy chain, CVS Pharmacy, in vaccinating the community’s residents, who were designated as a priority for the shots in Phase I of the Centers For Disease Control’s national vaccine rollout guidelines.
“We are all ready to get back to normal and enjoy life beyond the pandemic, and these vaccines are the key to doing that,” said Joan Rink-Carroll, the Executive Director at Silvergate who has been closely working with state authorities to ensure that Silvergate was one of the first senior living communities in San Marcos to be able to vaccinate its seniors. “There’s finally a light at the end of this tunnel. We’re already planning new activities for our residents to enjoy in the coming weeks once everyone is safely vaccinated a second time.”
Silvergate has already received confirmation from CVS Pharmacy for its second-round vaccine clinic dates, which are set to take place in early February. Teams from CVS Pharmacy will return to Silvergate to help run follow-up vaccination clinics, as the Pfizer vaccine requires a second dose three weeks after the initial shot in order to reach the 95% effectiveness rate.
“Despite the delays in the distribution of the vaccine, all of our nurses and caregivers went above and beyond the call of duty to make this happen,” said Joan Gomez, Director of Resident Care for the community. “They have been incredibly dedicated to the health and wellness of our resident population…all while working through this national health crisis we’re all experiencing together. They are true front-line healthcare heroes!”
Silvergate San Marcos has had enthusiastic cooperation from its resident population in the community’s first-round vaccination efforts.
“We knew that we would be in the first wave of vaccinations, and I’m just really thankful to be here,” said Marlene Champlin, a Silvergate San Marcos resident who has enjoyed her forever home since 2013. “The Silvergate staff has taken wonderful care of us. We’re a lot better off here than we would have been in our home with all that’s going on. Hopefully, we can just return to normal with the vaccine.”
“Being able to get back to gatherings, events and real activities was one of the main reasons I wanted to be vaccinated,” said Christine Okun, who misses cocktail hour with her friends and leading the community’s regular social hour. “Our Activities Director here puts on such fun events for us and finds all kinds of interesting things for us to do. Any of our events where we were gathering together indoors had to pretty much be put on hold. Now, we’re all just waiting with bated breath for the pandemic to be behind us so that Silvergate can go back to doing one of the things it does best…which is having great events and enjoyable activities.”
“I’m so thankful to be here at Silvergate and to be among the first to be getting this vaccine,” said Lenor Renter, a Silvergate resident who says she misses the community’s day trips, going to restaurants, being a part of the Walking Club and her beach walks. “We’re all tired of dealing with masks and social distancing. We want to go back to our everyday lives and be able to have family and friends visiting again. I’m so grateful right now to the Silvergate staff because it’s clear that they’ve done everything they could to get us all vaccinated as quickly as they could.”
About Silvergate San Marcos
Silvergate San Marcos is now scheduling virtual and private in-person tours of the community. For information, call David Nelson at (760) 744-4484 General information about the independent living, assisted living and memory care accommodations at Silvergate can be found at SilvergateRR.com/FB.
In case you missed it: