Marist Opens Vaccine Site for Students
Working with Dutchess County and Westchester Medical Center (WMC), Marist is offering 1,200 COVID-19 Moderna vaccines for students this week. Students were emailed a link to sign up for the vaccine on a first-come-first-serve basis, with Marist offering 500 vaccine appointments on Apr. 13 and 700 appointments on Apr. 15 at 51 Fulton St.
“Marist is very happy to be working with Westchester Medical Center,” Executive Vice President Geoffrey Brackett said. “Vaccination is the most important avenue to allow us to resume our normal operations. Although this location was not designed to be a vaccination site, it works great as one.”
Westchester Medical Center and Marist are working closely with each other in terms of student surveillance testing, targeted testing and now COVID-19 vaccinations on campus. The college is encouraging students to take advantage of on-campus vaccines as they send appointment updates to students by email and phone.
“The process was pretty seamless and the longest part was just filling out the paperwork beforehand,” Jon Kittredge ‘23 said after receiving his vaccine. Source: Greta Stuckey ‘23
“Westchester Medical Center was selected by New York State to essentially coordinate the distribution of the vaccine throughout the Hudson Valley,” Chief Operating Officer of the Northern Region for WMC Elissa Chessari said. “We have a great partnership with Marist and were on site last month to hold a pop-up vaccination clinic for 3,500 people in the community and in addition to that, we are here now to vaccinate students on campus.”
In the past month, the college has seen a spike in COVID-19 cases and has been operating under alert level orange, but returned to level yellow this week. Classes and all other in-person activities were suspended for over 25 consecutive days.
“It has been a tough and challenging year with COVID-19 so the mission is to keep getting people vaccinated,” former student and now Dutchess County Legislator Will Truitt ‘18 said.
This is the first week that students are able to return to the classroom for in-person instruction, but all other in-person activities are still suspended. For the spring semester, the college has seen a total of 616 COVID-19 cases but over the past week, the active number of cases has dropped to 82.
“It’s great that the students are getting vaccinated so everyone can get back to a level of comfort,” Senator Sue Serino said. “I’m sure the students have felt constrained and now that they have more opportunities to get vaccinated they can enjoy college life.”
The college is actively updating students on available COVID-19 vaccine appointments at both on and off campus locations. On Apr. 13, Marist sent a link to students that allowed them to make an appointment and reserve their spot for their first dose of the Moderna vaccine on Thursday.
County and campus officials joined at the vaccine site at 51 Fulton St. Source: Greta Stuckey ‘23
“I saw the vaccine clinic email last week and I figured I would try to get an appointment and I got one,” Jon Kittredge ‘23 said. “The process was pretty seamless and the longest part was just filling out the paperwork beforehand.”
Students entering the 51 Fulton St. building for their vaccine appointment stopped at the front door to get their temperature taken and were then cleared to enter. Students were instructed to fill out paperwork including a vaccine waiver and their insurance information.
“The paperwork and the need for insurance information before the vaccine was a little annoying, but the process was fine,” Eric Sanchez Lopez ‘21 said. “I chose to get vaccinated through this pop-up site because it was easy to register and close to campus.”
After getting the Moderna vaccine, students were given a vaccination card with their information and the date of their second appointment. The students were given a water bottle and a bag of pretzels after receiving the shot and were required to sit for 15 minutes after the shot to make sure they did not experience adverse reactions. Students came out of 51 Fulton St. with “I got vaccinated” stickers and smiles under their masks.
“I was initially trying to go through Dutchess County to get my vaccine, but a lot of places still had specific requirements to be eligible,” Hayden Gumb ‘21 said. “Once I saw the available appointments from Marist, I took one. The process was quick and they gave you water and a snack while you sat for 15 minutes after the shot.”
On Apr. 10, President Dennis J. Murray sent an email to the Marist community encouraging students to get vaccinated because “this is how life at Marist returns to normal.” Members of senior leadership at Marist are working to acquire as many vaccines as possible and are expecting around 1,000 doses next week. After next week, the college will assess the COVID-19 data and the number of vaccinated students to determine the need for more clinics in the upcoming weeks.
“We are likely at about 50 percent vaccination among eligible residents in Dutchess County,” County Executive Marcus Molinaro said. “Being on campus is important for student’s health and for the community’s health. Creating ease of access in regards to the vaccine for a large population of young people is beneficial to their health and to ours.”