Happy New Year! We hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season and is able to spend time with family and friends. Having some downtime over the holidays is an important part of maintaining good mental health for both our children and ourselves. Even though COVID-19 is still very much with us, we hope with masking, vaccination, boosters, and testing, everyone is able to celebrate in a safe way.
VACCINATIONS
Unfortunately, we are still very much in the midst of a pandemic. Covid-19 cases are surging, especially the highly contagious Omicron variant.
CDC: Information on Omicron Variant
It is time to get your children vaccinated if they have not already been. Yale is beginning 1st doses for children ages 5-11 year old again on January 8th, 2022 at their Scranton and Greenwich sites. All 16 and 17 year olds should get a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine and people 18 years old and over should get a booster of either Pfizer or Moderna. It is also recommended that anyone who got the Johnson and Johnson vaccine should be boosted with either a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.
Follow the link below to schedule a vaccine for your child:
Yale Covid Vaccine/Booster Scheduler
We are also continuing to offer flu shots in the office to all children 6 months of age and up. We have now seen many cases of flu in our office. So please call as soon as possible to schedule a flu shot for your child.
EXCITING NEWS FOR INFANTS! Coming soon we will begin vaccinating 2, 4, and 6 month olds with the combination vaccine Vaxelis. This is similar to the Pediarix vaccine which we have been using for several years except Vaxelis contains the Hib vaccine along with the Hepatitis B, polio, and DTaP vaccines. This means only 2 injections for infants instead of 3! We will still continue to give the pneumococcal vaccine and the oral rotavirus vaccine at these visits as well. Any time we can reduce the number of injections an infant has to receive, that’s a win for everyone!
CDC: Vaxelis Information Sheet
IMPORTANT CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL NEWS
In order to better serve the needs of the office and provide additional availability to see patients more timely, we will be turning over the care of newborns at Yale to the very capable Pediatric Hospitalist team as of January 3rd, 2022. They will see and examine your newborn on the Maternity floor for the length of their stay. We will continue to see your newborn in the office the day after they are discharged from the hospital. We are in constant contact with the Pediatric Hospitalists which will make for a smooth transition from care at the hospital to care in our office.
COVID TESTING IN THE OFFICE
We have been very careful in keeping patients with COVID outside of our office. This has resulted in our patients getting a PCR COVID test at Yale or other facilities prior to their visit. This caused them to be seen the following day once we had a confirmed negative result.
We are excited to offer the CEPHEID PCR COVID testing in the office for our ill patients. We will be able to see your children the same day. We have a limited supply of the testing materials so we can only test ill children who will be then be seen in our office if they have a negative result or via telemedicine if their COVID result is positive.
We will not be able to test for travel, work requirements or for exposure. In these cases, you will have to use Yale or another site offering PCR testing. We can only test patients who are ill and would like to be seen in the office for a visit.
A LONG GOODBYE
It is with great JOY and SADNESS, that we announce that Dr. Patrick Alvino will be retiring in the Spring of 2022. He has, over the years, developed wonderful relationships with families. It will be difficult to break them. In anticipation of his retirement, we are requesting that families who routinely see Dr. Alvino make their next physical exam appointment with a new provider. Dr. Alvino will help those families who see him for their mental health concerns to find providers who are appropriate for their child’s needs.