Florida hospitals prepare to administer first round of COVID-19 vaccines

ORLANDO, Fla. — Health care workers will be some of the first people to receive the newly approved COVID-19 vaccine.

Five hospitals in Florida were chosen to test the state’s distribution of the vaccine.

With shipments set to reach all 50 states by Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s director said he hopes vaccinations will start that quickly.

Watch: Can your employer require you to get the COVID-19 vaccine?

Officials with Adventhealth told Channel 9 they don’t have an exact date for when they’ll receive the first round of vaccines.

Once the vaccines arrive, it will be the start of the second major test to see how quickly Americans may be able to get vaccinated.

“I couldn’t be more confident in the distribution of the vaccine,” said Mike McDermott, president of Pfizer global supply.

Read: Florida reports a more than 25% increase in COVID-19 cases since Thanksgiving

As trials wrapped, Pfizer worked with UPS and FedEx to test their ability to get millions of vaccine doses from two facilities to distribution centers around the U.S.

The recommendations at this point in time are that health care workers and long-term care facility residents are going to be the first on the list.

Health care workers will only be able to get the vaccine through one of five hospitals in Florida’s largest cities. The five will get 100,000 doses in this first shipment of vials.

Read: CDC director approves COVID-19 vaccinations

That’s enough for each hospital to vaccinate, on average, 10,000 medical staff.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is expecting 20 million doses to be out this month, reaching 50 million by the end of January.

Because the vaccines first set for authorization and mass production require two doses, 100 million shots mean about 50 million people can get vaccinated.

See the full report in the video above.

Cox Media Group