The first doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine have arrived in Philadelphia. Doctors at Philadelphia’s Einstein Medical Center have confirmed the first doses of the vaccine were received there Monday morning.
City officials have declared that the number of vaccines available would be limited and the priority group who would receive it would be healthcare workers who are routinely exposed to COVID-19.
Under Philadelphia’s phase one, the vaccine will be offered to high-risk health workers, first responders, long-term care facility residents and staff, people of all ages with underlying conditions that make them high risk, and older adults in congregate living settings.
The first recipients of the vaccine in Pennsylvania got the shots Monday morning at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
First Philadelphia doses of the vaccine are going straight to the medical centers where staff can administer the medications to workers at highest risk, said Dr. Thomas Farley, city health director.
James Garrow, Director of communications for the health department said that the vaccines to Einstein arrived in a typical UPS truck along with other items for delivery to the medical center.
The Philadelphia Department of Health has said that the vaccines will not be mandatory and will be free to all city residents. The city’s vaccine rollout operates independently of statewide efforts and it will receive funds directly from the federal government.
Two injections
The first approved vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech requires two injections. Health officials will need to coordinate return visits for everyone who gets an initial injection Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Philadelphia has instructed medical centers to begin vaccinating their staff just as soon as the first doses are delivered, Garrow said.
More than 75,000 Philadelphians have contracted the virus since the beginning of the pandemic. Nearly 10,000 have been hospitalized and more than 2,000 have died.
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