UW Medicine administers Washington’s first COVID-19 vaccinations Tuesday
Dec 15, 2020, 11:09 AM | Updated: Oct 2, 2024, 9:00 pm
Washington's first COVID vaccine is administered at UW Medicine. (KING 5)
(KING 5)
The first COVID-19 vaccinations at UW Medicine took place Tuesday at 11 a.m. as a group of frontline workers received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
“The word for today is momentous,” said Harborview Associate Medical Director Dr. John Lynch.
The first employees to be vaccinated included nurses, doctors, environmental-services staff, and respiratory-care therapists.
UW Medicine received approximately 3,900 doses of the Pfizer vaccine on Monday for its hospitals: Harborview Medical Center, Valley Medical Center, and the two campuses of University of Washington Medical Center (Montlake and Northwest). Vaccination clinics for eligible health care workers at UW Medicine will begin Thursday, Dec. 17.
The first shipments of a COVID-19 vaccine for widespread use in the United States headed out Sunday from Michigan to distribution centers across the country. Washington state’s initial shipment has 62,000 doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, which will be prioritized for frontline health care workers and people at long-term care facilities.
“I’m joyous to be able to say that the federal government has authorized the use of a COVID vaccine,” Gov. Jay Inslee said Sunday, adding that Washington state has finished its own scientific safety review as well, along with its partners in other West Coast states.
“This cannot come soon enough, obviously,” Inslee said about the vaccine.
Another vaccine by Moderna will be reviewed by an expert panel this week and soon afterward could be allowed for public use.
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