‘A step closer to normalcy’

Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau coordinator John Moreno, left, and Subroto Banerji, CHCC chief operation officer, check out the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine that arrived in the CNMI early yesterday morning.(JUSTINE NAUTA)

A United Airlines flight that landed at the Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport early yesterday morning held the CNMI’s first batch of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines that will jumpstart the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.’s plan to start administering the vaccines tomorrow, Dec. 19, at the Medical Care and Treatment Site of the Commonwealth Health Center’s upper level area. The vaccine shots will be free.

CHCC chief operation officer Subroto Banerji confirmed that the vaccines are free of charge as this is in response to a public health emergency. “There’s no cost to the public for this,” he said.

Pfizer’s vaccine is a two-dose vaccination series, given 21 days apart. According to Banerji, the first shipment of five boxes that contain 4,800 doses will be administered to 2,400 individuals, allowing CHCC to administer both doses A and dose B. Banerji said they are expecting the second shipment of vaccines as early as next week. “The plan is to try to ship out to the CNMI weekly,” said Banerji.

Once the U.S. Federal Drug Administration grants Emergency Use Authorization to the COVID-19 vaccine that is being developed by Moderna Inc., the CNMI will also expect a shipment from them, Banerji said.

Due to the CNMI’s location, Banerji stated that they are in talks with the national group that’s handling the vaccines’ distribution, Operation Warp Speed, on how they could have the vaccines shipped in bulk instead of a weekly shipment, “perhaps taking four weeks and making it one shipment. …We’ll be doing this a couple more times.”

He assured that the vaccines are highly secured at the Commonwealth Health Center and the room where they are being stored is not accessible to the public. The room is a card-accessible room that is only open to a limited number people. The COVID-19 Task Force is working with the Department of Public Safety and CHCC’s security to monitor the vaccine.

“Every movement of these vaccines will be under secure monitoring and oversight. So I believe we’re doing our best to maintain the security chain,” said Banerji.

He said the vaccines’ arrival is a symbol that the CNMI is “one step closer to normalcy.”

The plan is for the vaccines to be administered in three phases:

Phase 1: An estimated 1,600 people working in health care settings, first responder agencies, and vulnerable populations.

Phase 2: Expanding to essential workers and the general population. The essential worker population includes but is not limited to: Private pharmacy staff, Public School System instructional staff, PSS school support staff, PSS school administrators, and child care workers.

Phase 3: Continuation of the general population and possible vaccination opportunity for children under the age of 15.

What now?

For the first group of people who will get the vaccine tomorrow, CHCC will focus on health care workers in the public and private sector.

The first group, 1A, contain approximately 1,600 individuals and that includes CHCC staff, private providers, and first responders.

“We’ll be reaching out to all the private providers, which includes dentists, pharmacy, rehab, everyone that’s licensed in the CNMI who provides health care. Then we’ll be also factoring first-line responders, and…long term care,” said Banerji.

Since the CNMI doesn’t have long-term care facilities, Banerji said that CHCC’s intention is to include the homebound man’amko, and other individuals who are homebound. CHCC will be reaching out to the Department of Community and Culture Affairs to help the people who are homebound to register for the vaccination.

Individuals will have to register for vaccination through the registration page at vaccinatecnmi.com. CHCC will provide instructions for the registration. According to CHCC chief executive officer Esther Muña, the registration process will be similar to the community-based testing registration.

Training for vaccine administration

Banerji confirmed that CHCC staff have undergone training in the last couple of weeks at the Medical Care and Treatment Site at CHCC’s upper parking lot. Additionally, CHCC staff have been provided with videos on how to administer the vaccine.

Today, CHCC will be doing a much deeper dive on training and getting ready to administer the vaccine tomorrow. Banerji stated that they have been involving their pharmacy team, nursing team, providers—essentially everyone who have been working with vaccines for “all their career.”

Banerji added that the vaccine comes in prefilled syringes. “If they’re in the vials and we have to draw from the vial into syringes, you have to do that all in one step. Saturday is going to be a really good kickoff for us to test all those different processes,” said Banerji.

Editor’s Note: This story was edited to indicate that the first COVID-19 vaccine will be administered at the Medical Care and Treatment Site of the Commonwealth Health Center’s upper level area.