Doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 are making their way to New York City hospitals.
A box of the new COVID-19 vaccine was seen arriving at NYU Langone Health—Tisch Hospital, located at 550 1st Avenue in Manhattan. Video released by the hospital shows the vaccines arriving via UPS and being brought into storage within the hospital.
The hospital will follow CDC guidelines when it comes to storing and administering the first doses of the vaccine. Currently, hospitals within the NYU Langone Health system are only offering COVID-19 vaccines for frontline workers.
The Pfizer vaccine was approved by the FDA for emergency use on Dec. 11, and 170,000 doses are being allocated immediately for 72,000 at-risk healthcare staff and long-term care facility residents across the state. As the staff within NYU Langone begins to be vaccinated, the health care system will begin to develop a plan to dole out the vaccine to patients.
“As we begin to vaccinate our staff, extensive vaccine planning for our patients is also underway,” said Michael S. Phillips, MD, chief epidemiologist for NYU Langone, in a press release.
Dec. 14 marked the first day that health care workers began to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in the state. The first went to Sandra Lindsey, a nurse at Northwell Health, and was administered by Dr. Michelle Chester at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. The vaccine was administered during Governor Cuomo’s livestream.
Five hospitals in New York City have begun to receive doses of the new COVID-19 vaccine. Mayor de Blasio announced that 37 additional hospitals will receive doses of the vaccine on Tuesday, Dec. 15, followed by two more hospitals on Wednesday, Dec. 16.
