Efforts to combat COVID-19 highlighted at Bayonne Medical Center Christmas tree lighting

Efforts to combat COVID-19 locally were highlighted by staff and officials at the Bayonne Medical Center Christmas tree lighting yesterday.

By Daniel Ulloa/Hudson County View

“We have come out fighting strongly against the surge pandemic of COVID-19 which hurt our communities beginning in March of this year. We fought, we lost a lot of our dear ones, loved ones. We survived and we continue to fight as we deal with the second wave of this pandemic,” said BMC Chief Hospital Executive Dr. Vijay Singh, who presided over the ceremony.

“Thank you for everything you’ve been doing this whole year to make sure that our community is protected. You mean so much to this city,” added Mayor Jimmy Davis.

“It’s something when someone else recognizes what you have done for a community. Each person being honored with a bench deserves that. The greatest thing any one of us could do is give back to the community,” he added.

The late Dan Kane, who is credited with saving BMC in 2008, was honored along with  Madeline Lo Re, whose foundation was created to fight cancer, and finally Mickey McCabe, of McCabe Ambulance Services.

“Along with this new year, Hanukkah, Christmas comes news of the vaccine. Hopefully, by Christmas, a lot of the frontline workers will start getting vaccinated and we will be stronger from what has happened in the last year,” BMC CEO Dr. Achintya Moulik stated.

“Pandemics are always portals to a new world,” Moulik said, citing the advent of health insurance and vaccinations as a result of the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic.

BMC is opening a chronic COVID-19 Care Management Clinic to provide follow-up for patients who had COVID, where they will monitor their lung, heart, and other organ functions. They are also preparing to serve as a site for vaccinations.

To cope with the volume of tests, they have been doing walk-in and drive-thru testing for COVID.

Additionally, they will soon be creating a program for COVID-19 patients to help with elective surgeries, outpatient procedures, and appointments. This includes temperature monitoring and automated symptom screening in all areas of the hospital.