HSHS, Prevea Health workers get second dose of COVID vaccine

Prevea Health began administering second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine Jan. 6 to its health care workers, along with those at its HSHS hospital partners in Wisconsin. The second dose, which is required for maximum effectiveness (94%) of the vaccine, is given 21 days after the first dose.

“From the moment these vaccines first became available to us by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services just 21 days ago, our teams have been working swiftly yet carefully to effectively immunize every health care worker within the Prevea Health and HSHS Wisconsin systems that wishes to be vaccinated,” said Dr. Ashok Rai, president and CEO at Prevea Health. “We are immensely proud of the work our teams have done so far to get our health care workers and community EMS teams vaccinated. We continue to eagerly await the opportunity to offer these life-saving vaccines to our community members and put an end to this pandemic.”

Dr. Richard Amankwah, a Prevea Health hospitalist at HSHS St. Vincent Hospital and HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital Medical Center in Green Bay, was among the first to receive a first dose of vaccine on Dec. 16, and among the first to receive his second.

“This second dose completes my immunization and provides me great relief as a frontline health care provider,” Amankwah said. “I encourage my patients and everyone in our communities to become vaccinated, and to be sure to get both doses for maximum protection, the moment they become available.”

Additional health care workers at HSHS hospitals in Wisconsin (HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital in Oconto Falls; HSHS St. Vincent Hospital and HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital Medical Center in Green Bay; HSHS St. Nicholas Hospital in Sheboygan; HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire; and HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls) and Prevea Health locations throughout Wisconsin will receive the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in the coming days and weeks.

As the wait for vaccines to become more widely available continues, HSHS Wisconsin and Prevea Health encourage everyone to do their part to decrease the number of COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin by continuing with diligent hand washing, social distancing, masking and staying home if you are not feeling well.