First shipment of Pfizer’s COVID-19 Vaccine arrived for distribution in the United States

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On Sunday, the first trucks carrying a COVID-19 vaccine for a massive use in the United States pulled out of a Michigan manufacturing plant. Point to be noted that the shots of the Covid-19 vaccine are critical to stopping the nation’s coronavirus outbreak. The announcement came hours before a panel of CDC gave an interim recommendation for the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech to be administered in the US. On Friday, the FDA issued emergency use authorization for the vaccine. The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices issued a recommendation on Saturday, for use of the COVID-19 vaccine for all those 16 and older. Workers started pulling doses out of a freezer in the early morning at a Pfizer plant in Michigan, boxing the vaccine, and loading the units onto pallets so they could be placed on trucks.

The workers at the facility were wearing masks, face shields, and gloves. They had dry ice, shipping labels, and packing tape when putting together the packages inside the warehouse. One forklift driver transported the boxes to a loading area and a second forklift driver transferred the pallets from inside the facility onto a semi-truck. The shipments of the Pfizer vaccine will set in motion the biggest vaccination effort in American history at a critical juncture of the pandemic. Point to be noted that it has killed at least 1.6 million and sickened 71 million across the country. There were initially about 3 million doses expected to be sent out. The priority is health care workers and nursing home residents as infections, hospitalizations, and deaths soar in the United States.

The Covid-19 vaccine offers a bright spot in the fight against the pandemic. US federal officials said the first shipments of Pfizer’s vaccine will be staggered and will arrive in 145 distribution centers on Monday. The officials also said there is an additional 425 sites getting shipments on Tuesday and the remaining 66 on Wednesday. It is noteworthy that the vaccine is co-developed by German partner BioNTech. The health care giant in Pennsylvania UPMC has finalized staff to operate its facilities and they are getting the first round of vaccinations. The medical director of hospital quality Dr. Sandra Kemmerly said 40-hospital Ochsner Health System in Louisiana and Mississippi expects to receive more than 9,000 doses in the coming days. The federal officials also confirmed that vaccine doses should be delivered to all vaccination sites identified by states, such as local pharmacies, within 3-weeks.