An estimated 26,500 doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine will arrive at Long Island hospitals and distribution centers as soon as this weekend, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during his press briefing today.
The first to receive the vaccine will be nursing home residents and staff and high-risk hospital workers, such as emergency room doctors. Nursing home residents and staff are expected to begin receiving the vaccine on Dec. 21 through the U.S. government’s program, which will send Walgreen’s and CVS staff to nursing homes to administer the vaccines.
“Once we get rolling, we hope to quickly ramp up access,” said Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, “so we can vaccinate then frontline workers, including other medical professionals, first responders, and other additional high-risk workers.”
Last week, Curran launched a public awareness campaign, “We Can Do It, Nassau,” to encourage residents to get the vaccine when it is available. At today’s news conference, she announced a texting platform that will inform residents about their eligibility to get the vaccine as different phases of distribution are rolled out. County residents can text COVID19 to 888777 to learn more.
Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine is expected to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration tomorrow. New York’s vaccine panel will then immediately convene to review and approve the vaccine.
The vaccines will be sent to 90 distribution centers across the state that have cold storage. A few weeks later, the second dose will be shipped to the same centers, and the nursing home patients, workers, and hospital workers getting the vaccine will receive the second dose.
After this initial rollout of the vaccine, 170,000 New Yorkers will be vaccinated for Covid-19, about 26,500 of them on Long Island.
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