JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Shipments of millions of doses of Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine left the company's Michigan plant Sunday morning.
The doses are being flown and trucked across the United States. U.S. Marshals escorted the trucks Sunday from the plant. UPS and FedEx will deliver about 2.5 million doses to distribution centers across all 50 states by the end of the week, including a delivery to the First Coast.
"We haven't done this for something like COVID, ever really, in modern history of our country," Chad Neilsen, UF Health's Infection Prevention Director said.
Governor Ron DeSantis named UF Health in Jacksonville one of five hospitals in Florida that will distribute the vaccine. DeSantis also named other major hospitals in cities like Miami, Orlando and Tampa, as a pre-staging site for the first available doses of the vaccine.
Neilsen and the staff at UF Health have been preparing to receive the vaccine for weeks, prep that includes storing it in about 95 degree below zero temperatures.
According to a spokesperson for UF Health, the hospital will get thousands of doses Monday. The vaccine does need two doses to be effective, however. Staff members who volunteered to get the vaccine will be the first to be vaccinated. The spokesperson said they've told frontline workers and any other staff members who want to get vaccinated to sign up through a portal.
The spokesperson said the shipment is expected to arrive in Jacksonville around 10:30 a.m. Monday.
About 97,500 doses will go to hospitals across Florida, like UF Health, for healthcare workers in the first shipment. A little more than 82,000 will go to nursing homes and assisted living facilities. About 179,500 doses will be delivered across Florida. Since people need two doses three to four weeks apart, the state will have enough initially to vaccinate about 89,750 people.
The vaccine isn't expected to be available to the general public until the spring or summer of 2021. First Coast News will provide updates on-air and online Monday as the first doses of the vaccine arrive in Jacksonville.