'It was challenging': 90-year-old woman walks 9kms amid winter storm to get COVID vaccine
Amid a rare winter storm in Seattle, US, a 90-year-old woman walked six miles (9.6km) round trip to get her first shot of coronavirus vaccine.
- World News
- 2 min read
Amid a rare winter storm in Seattle, a 90-year-old woman walked six miles (9.6km) round trip to get her first shot of coronavirus vaccine. According to Associated Press, Fran Goldman had secured her first appointment for the vaccine shot for Sunday morning. However, a strong winter storm moved through the region on Friday and Saturday, turning the city’s normal rainy streets into a winter scene of snowdrifts.
Goldman said, “I have been calling to get an appointment anywhere, every morning, every afternoon and often I’ve been online at night”.
While speaking to Seattle Times, the 90-year-old revealed that she dressed in fleece pants and a short-sleeved shirt so that the nurse could get to her arm easily. She even wore a fleece zip-up, then a down coat and a rain jacket as well. Further, Goldman said that she then put on snow boots, took out her walking sticks, and ventured onto the snowy streets.
She said, “It was not easy going, it was challenging”.
However, Goldman made it to her appointment, that too just five minutes late. Her daughter Ruth Goldman, who lives in Buffalo, New York, said that she wasn’t surprised by her mother’s actions. Ruth called her family “outside people” and added, “We love being outside. I was out yesterday at Lake Ontario with a wind chill of 6 degrees”.
COVID-19 vaccination in US
Meanwhile, it is worth noting that vaccination has been the number one priority of the Biden administration. Recently, he announced that the US has secured an additional 200 million doses of Moderna and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. During his address to the National Institutes of Health, Biden said that the nation has signed the “final contracts'' with both the companies for 100 million doses of each COVID-19 vaccine candidate and has even moved up the delivery date.
What US President termed as “further good news”, both companies have agreed and now are “contractually obligated” to expedite the delivery of jabs by the end of May and not in June. The United States remains the worst hit of the COVID-19 pandemic as it has recorded most cases and deaths in the world. Reportedly, the US also amounts to 25% of the global caseload and nearly 20% of the global death toll due to coronavirus infection.
(With inputs from AP)
Published By : Bhavya Sukheja
Published On: 17 February 2021 at 14:06 IST