Indian Health Camp of New Jersey holds vaccination drives

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Indian Health Camp of New Jersey – IHCNJ, a non-profit tax exempt organization held COVID-19 vaccine drives at Balaji Temple in Bridgewater on May 1, 2021 and Swaminarayan Temple in South Brunswick on May 8, 2021, where about 100 people received vaccinations offered by Ritesh Shah of Legacy Pharmacy Group – Bayshore and Ramtown Pharmacy.

In a May 10, 2021 press release, IHCNJ said that it is continuing to provide services in the community since the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020.  Both temple management and their volunteers provided their support and services in this unprecedented time of public health crisis due to COVID-19 pandemic which affected millions of Americans and when more than 580,000 people succumbed to the illness, IHCNJ said.

South Brunswick Mayor Charles Carley, Deputy Mayor Joe Camarota, former Mayor of Montgomery Township Sadaf Jaffer and South Brunswick School Board Member Joyce Mehta were among the elected officials who attended the vaccine drive to extend their support to IHCNJ’s continued community health outreach efforts.

A proclamation from South Brunswick Mayor and Council was presented during the vaccine drive on May 8, 2021.

Ritesh Shah, owner of four independent pharmacies in Central Jersey and CEO of Legacy Pharmacy Group, a group purchasing organization for independent pharmacies, was on hand from the day COVID-19 hit the U.S. in 2020, the press release noted.

Shah and his team began setting up testing stations in their pharmacies and other locations in the communities.  To date, Legacy Pharmacy Group have tested more than 250,000 people.

And even before New Jersey pharmacists got access to vaccines, Shah had pre-registered nearly 100,000 individuals for them, the press release said.

“A long-time public health advocate, Shah has relationships with NJ State Health Department officials and lawmakers and spends a good deal of his time educating them about the needs of his patients,” the IHCNJ said.

In October 2020, Shah received a commendation from the Governor of New Jersey, a state Senator and the General Assembly for his efforts in helping educate the public, testing for COVID-19 and helping prevent the spread of the disease.

“We are all in this together,” Shah is quoted saying in the press release. “As pharmacists, we must do all it takes to make our communities safer.  It’s not only our responsibility, it’s an obligation,” Shah emphasized.

Dr. Mona Mody, Dr. Prema Prasad, Asha Shah, Shirish Parekh, IHCNJ Vice President,  Avani Patel and Peggy Rizzo of Ramtwon Pharmacy and Nelly Fuzaylov and Aleena Mehdi of Bayshore Pharmacy extended their services during the vaccine drive.

IHCNJ has been serving communities by organizing many activities virtually to include online interviews on TV and radio and education via articles and social media platforms related to current topics of COVID-19, mental health and other chronic diseases education and awareness as part of their health promotion and disease prevention objectives, the organization said.

In addition, IHCNJ also donated personal protective equipment earlier in 2020 when there was severe shortage and scarcity at the local hospitals in New Jersey.  Among the recipients were Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Somerset and Saint Peter’s Medical Center in New Brunswick.

Indian Health Camp of New Jersey also provided free COVID-19 FDA authorized antibody testing to hundreds of people in collaboration with Hematology & Oncology Care, Helping Hearts Foundation and Durham Pharmacy.

For more information call Dr. Tushar Patel at 848-391-0499, e-mail tpatel434@yahoo.com or Ritesh Shah at 732-766-0546 or e-mail ritesh1997@yahoo.com.