L+M staff launches COVID-19 vaccination site at Mitchell College

By Brian Hallenbeck, Day staff writer | January 25, 2021

New London — Tom and Susan Fournier drove from Westport to New London early Monday morning intent on being among the first to get vaccinated at Yale New Haven Health’s COVID-19 vaccination site at Mitchell College.

They arrived outside the low-slung section of the Student Center that houses the De Biasi Drive site at 6:30 a.m. — two hours before their scheduled appointments, which their daughter had helped them arrange.

“We didn’t know what to expect,” Tom said. “We heard there might be long lines.”

The site, manned by staff from Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, a Yale New Haven Health affiliate, functioned smoothly at the start Monday, with vaccinators expecting to administer the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to 131 people by the end of the day. All of those receiving the shots — currently reserved for residents 75 and older as part of the state’s phased rollout of the vaccine — had made appointments in advance.

There were no long lines.

“This is an exciting day,” said Patrick Green, L+M’s president and chief executive officer. “This is the next step in defeating this pandemic. We’re excited to be serving the community in this way. We’ll be open seven days a week, from 8 a.m to 8 p.m., and we’re going to be here as long as we have vaccine.”

Read full story in The Day.