William F. Green state Veterans home in Bay Minette will receive Moderna vaccine

BAY MINETTE, Ala. (WPMI) — The Alabama state Veterans homes are among the state’s first long terms care facilities to establish a CDC COVID-19 vaccination program.

For the residents of the William F. Green state Veterans home in Bay Minette, this vaccination program is big news.

This and other Veterans homes across the state have purchased special freezers to store the Moderna vaccine which has to be kept at a certain cold temperature.

“This is an opportunity for us to vaccinate new admissions to the facility for our veterans, new hires to the facilities, and those staff members who were a little hesitant at first to get vaccinated just trying to look back and see and wait,” Brian McFeely, the administrator at William F. Green Veterans home, shared.

The freezer has a special data logger which monitors the temperature 24 hours a day. McFeely says the addition of the new vaccine freezer is huge for them because they’ll be able to take care of the most vulnerable population right in their facility.

“We’re sitting probably about 82 percent of our veterans are vaccinated and getting close to 40 percent of our staff are vaccinated,” he said.

20 more Veterans have already signed up for the vaccine. Over the next couple of days, the William F. Green state veterans home will receive 50 full doses of the Moderna to accommodate them and others.

“We thought that 50 was a very good number, a very manageable number. Something that we could utilize and if we need more, we’ll be able to order more,” he said.

“All these veterans that have been vaccinated, and their spouses, and their children that have been vaccinated, are able to come in and hug, and love on their father and brother. It’s been a big deal for them,” McFeely added.

McFeely says they’re planning to hold their first vaccine clinic sometime next week.