HOLYOKE — The Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke saw a glimmer of hope on Tuesday: the first residents and staff at the facility received COVID-19 vaccines.
The home was the site of a massive outbreak of COVID-19 earlier this year, killing at least 76 veteran residents and infecting over 150 residents and staffers during three months. Those who now live in the facility have had to endure lockdowns when staff or residents test positive, and the social isolation that comes with it. Employees, meanwhile, have continued to deal with thin staffing, low morale and the trauma from this year’s outbreak.
“I haven’t processed it yet,” said Joseph Ramirez, a certified nursing assistant, or CNA, at the home. “It felt real, I guess. It’s finally here … Hopefully, this is a turnaround for us in the building.”
The first resident to receive the immunization was Robert Aucoin, a 78-year-old Air Force veteran who has lived in the facility since April 2018.
“I am very happy about getting the vaccine,” Aucoin said in a statement provided by the state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services. “My wish is that everyone in the world can get the vaccine.”
The staff and veterans were near the front of the line for the vaccine as part of the state’s vaccine distribution plan, which prioritized frontline health care workers and residents of long-term-care facilities like the Soldiers’ Home.
“At the end of the day I think everybody who wanted got it,” said Cory Bombredi, an organizer with SEIU Local 888 — the union representing staffers such as certified nurse assistants and licensed practical nurses at the home.
For Roberta Weber-Twining, the vaccinations on Tuesday were a move in a positive direction. Her husband, Timothy, is a 77-year-old Army veteran and retired Springfield police sergeant, lives at the home, where he contracted COVID-19 earlier this year.
“It’s a light at the end of a long tunnel,” she said.
State officials said that in the upcoming weeks, additional vaccination clinics will be set up at the home for those who want to be immunized.
Veteran residents living in Holyoke Medical Center’s dedicated skilled nursing unit were offered the vaccine on Dec. 17. On Sunday, in the most recent round of testing at the hospital, three veteran residents tested positive for the virus. All other veteran residents at HMC tested negative.
As staff or residents test positive, visitors are prevented from entering the Soldiers’ Home to see their loved ones. That has been difficult on veterans, who haven’t been able to see their families during the holiday season.
“People are frustrated,” Ramirez said. “We get one day when everything is good, and then we find out we have positive people. And it’s the most sad for the veterans because we see the effects in them — the depression … We can’t replace their family.”
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.