Lane Hawkes, emergency room nurse, receives a Covid vaccine at Salem Hospital on Dec. 17 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
An emergency room nurse, hospital cleaner, doctor and patient transport worker were the first people to receive a Covid vaccine in Salem Thursday afternoon.
Salem Hospital began vaccinating workers who are in close contact with Covid patients after receiving a shipment of 975 vaccine doses in the morning. Vaccines will continue to be available for 12 hours per day so long as the hospital has doses available.
Salem Health CEO Cheryl Nester Wolfe, a nurse, delivered the first vaccine to Dr. Katherine Landen, the hospital’s emergency department medical director.
Dr. Katherine Landen, left, jokes with Salem Health CEO and nurse Cheryl Nester Wolfe as Wolfe prepares to administer the hospital’s first Covid vaccine on Dec. 17 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
Jeffrey Tolbert, right, a member of the Salem Hospital lift team, is screened before receiving a Covid vaccine on Dec. 17 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
Salem Health CEO and nurse Cheryl Nester Wolfe, right, delivers Salem’s first Covid vaccine to Dr. Katherine Landen on Dec. 17 at Salem Hospital (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
Dr. Katherine Landen, emergency department medical director at Salem Hospital, shows off her arm after receiving Salem’s first Covid vaccine on Dec. 17 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
A sign outside the seventh floor Covid vaccination room at Salem Hospital, where employees began getting vaccinated on Dec. 17 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
Dr. Katherine Landen, emergency department medical director at Salem Hospital, displays her employee badge after receiving Salem’s first Covid vaccine on Dec. 17 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
Jeffrey Tolbert, a member of the Salem Hospital lift team, sits in the waiting area after receiving his Covid vaccine on Dec. 17, one of the first Salem health care workers to do so (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
