They waited for months for this day.
“Thrilled, ecstatic,” said Kate Johnson of Montville, before rolling up her sleeve.
“I feel fine, excited, glad to be here,” added Jeanette Rohan of Columbia.
A shot in their arm gives some Connecticut seniors confidence they’ll get through the rest of this pandemic without getting sick.
“Relieved to finally get on the path to getting vaccinated,” said Kate’s husband Len.
Presidents Day meant more people off of work, and long lines at a mass vaccination site in East Hartford, where 1,800 people received the Covid vaccine.
In Middletown, the lines were shorter, but people still reported waiting for about an hour to roll up their sleeve.
“A long wait, a long wait to get the appointment, and a long wait, this has been very very well managed here,” said Johnson.
Rohan said she sat on the phone three-and-half hours and ended up giving up and waiting for a call back, which she got the next day.
“I believe in vaccinations and I have lots of a family members that I want to be around again. I’m taking care of an older mother, so I need it,” she explained.
Officials at the site on the campus of Wesleyan University reported doling out 500 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. They added that they could have done more due to the demand. Not only is having more vaccine allocated an issue but also having enough staff to administer it.
“We definitely need more vaccinators and I know that’s what our leadership team is working on behind the scenes, making sure we can staff our sites to provide the service to handle those doses,” explained Gary Wallace, the community engagement director for Community Health Center, Inc.
Wayne Lentini of Berlin told NBC Connecticut he’s not 100% sold on whether the shot is necessary, but felt it was safe.
“I think I’m more or less doing it probably because of peer pressure more than anything else.”
The retiree said he hoped it will help him get back to one of the things he loves most in his life, travel.
“Unless you have the vaccine it’s very difficult to even get on a plane,” he pointed out.
Len Johnson is a little more cautious and said he’ll still be following strict Covid guidelines.
“I think it’s going to be a long time before we get back to normal,” he said.
