BOSTON — More Massachusetts hospitals are expecting their first delivery Tuesday of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine and one hospital will give the first shots to some of their frontline staff hours after it arrives.
It's here! pic.twitter.com/YEv2wDJiwS
— Tufts Medical Center (@TuftsMedicalCtr) December 15, 2020
In Boston, Tufts Medical Center got its delivery just before 10 a.m. and gave the first doses to frontline workers at the hospital at 1:45 p.m.
“Be hopeful, this is the miracle of science”
— Scott McDonnell (@ScottMcDonnell_) December 15, 2020
Dr. Helen Boucher, Chief of Infectious Diseases at @TuftsMedicalCtr receives one of the first injections of COVID-19 vaccine.
Shipment arrived at 7:04 a.m at Tufts w/ 2,925 doses @boston25 pic.twitter.com/ij4eSeSUha
UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester tweeted a photo just before 9 a.m. of hospital pharmacists unboxing the shipment, adding “It’s here... Amazing how much hope can be bundled in one small box.”
It’s here...
— UMass Memorial (@umassmemorial) December 15, 2020
Amazing how much hope can be bundled in one small box. 📦
(Pictured: Our caregivers - Clinical Pharmacists Lorie Gull and Chris Manzi)#UMassMemorial #COVIDVaccine @pfizer #Worcester #HistoryIsMade #COVID19 #COVID #Vaccine @FedEx #Pfizer pic.twitter.com/eO1NXU200u
The first @Pfizer vaccine doses for @UMassMemorial health care workers have arrived in #Worcester. Caregivers will be vaccinated starting this week. UMass Medical School researchers took part in the clinical trial. #COVID19 #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/DLu6mkCDs8
— UMass Medical School (@UMassMedical) December 15, 2020
Boston Medical Center was the first Boston hospital to get the messenger-RNA based vaccine, which Pfizer developed with the German biotechnology firm BioNTech. Nearly 2,000 doses in a plain white box from Kalamazoo, Michigan, were dropped off by FedEx early Monday morning.
Shortly after delivery to BMC, the 1,950 vials were pulled from a shipping bed of dry ice and placed into a refrigerator chilled to minus-71 degrees Celsius, the product’s required storage temperature.
BMC plans to begin vaccinating front-line employees on Wednesday by appointment, with an emphasis on those who have face-to-face contact with COVID-19 patients. Physicians and nurses on COVID-19 floors fit into that category, but so do food service workers and housekeeping staff.
Several other area hospitals, including Newton Wellesley and Lawrence Hospital, are also expected to get their first doses delivered Tuesday, are among the 400 health care facilities that will get their first shipments of the Pfizer vaccine on Tuesday.
A 96-year-old World War II veteran in Bedford became the first VA patient in the country to get the shot Monday.
The VA Bedford Healthcare system announced the milestone over social media, posting that Margaret Klessens, a resident of the Community Living Center in the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital received the shot at 12:07 p.m.
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