It’s official: vaccinations have finally begun.
The moment we’ve all been waiting for since the pandemic first hit has finally come to fruition. Cities across the U.S. have officially started vaccinating for Covid-19.
San Diego County’s first official vaccinations happened yesterday morning at Rady Children’s Hospital and Naval Medical Center. The first San Diegan resident to be given the Pfizer vaccine was Brittanee Randle, an ER nurse at Rady Children’s Hospital. Naval Medical Center, also one of the first sites to start vaccinating healthcare workers in San Diego, gave its first dose to Lt. Catherine Senoyuit, who is a U.S. Navy Registered Nurse in the emergency department.
UC San Diego also received its first batch of doses on Tuesday. Not including those sent to Naval Medical Center, San Diego County is expected to receive a total of 28,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine over the next few days. According to San Diego’s County News Center, these first shipments should cover immunizations for 72% of all identified health care recipients in Tier 1.
WATCH: Brittanee Randle, an emergency room nurse at Rady Children's Hospital, was the first non-military San Diegan to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. https://t.co/eHW4C229Jy pic.twitter.com/EFCkkSTAKC
— NBC 7 San Diego (@nbcsandiego) December 16, 2020
“The arrival of the vaccine is great news and will give us the best tool to slow the spread of the pandemic,” said County Public Health Officer Wilma Wooten, M.D., M.P.H. in a statement. “However, this does not mean people should not continue taking the necessary precautions to avoid getting COVID-19.”
San Diego was one of four cities in the state to receive the first shipments of the Pfizer vaccine, along with Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Eureka. According to Governor Newsom, vaccines were distributed to an additional 24 locations across the state on Tuesday, with doses for five more locations going out today (Wednesday).
Newsom also confirmed that California will receive 393,000 more doses from Pfizer next week.
[Featured image: Pexels]