Pfizer starts distributing COVID vaccines [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• As COVID cases in the US steadily rise, the distribution of Pfizer’s first coronavirus vaccines has started on Sunday.
• The operation is viewed as the biggest vaccination rollout in the country’s history.
• The initial shipment, says federal officials, will be delivered to distribution sites on a staggered basis depending on a state’s adult population.

As the pandemic continues to kill and infect millions of people across the US, the largest vaccination rollout in American history has finally begun early Sunday. Trucks full of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccines were seen exiting a Michigan warehouse, ready to hit the road.  

At around 6:30 a.m., warehouse workers in a plant at Kalamazoo were shown in a live feed stacking pizza-boxed sized cartons full of vaccine vials from a freezer to large coolers, before being boxed and labeled and loaded in trucks. By 8:30, the video showed one FedEx truck and 2 UPS trucks leaving the facility and slowly driving off as workers and residents clapped and cheered.

According to MSNBC, the first batch contained a total of 189 boxes in the trucks. Each box contains less than 1,000 vials.

Government officials have said that the first shipments will be carried out in gradual stages. Some will arrive in 145 distribution centers on Monday, which is the same time as when New York gets its first doses.

On Tuesday, another 425 distribution sites will get shipments while the remaining 66 will get theirs on Wednesday.

Co-developed by German partner BioNTech, the vaccine is being allocated based on the adult population per state.

Shipping giants UPS and FedEx have vowed to give the vaccines top priority over any other items even as online shopping from the holiday season and lockdowns is reaching its peak. Both are providing tracking technology embedded in the Pfizer boxes along with devices that monitor temperature, location, and motion throughout its journey.

Pfizer’s vaccine was the first ever to secure an FDA approval for emergency use under the Trump Administration while others are still awaiting approval. 

Source: New York Post