97,500 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine will arrive in Pennsylvania this week as the first COVID-19 shots began to be administered to health care workers on Monday.
"Today is an important day as we look toward the future," said Dr. Rachel Levine, PA Secretary of Health.
The COVID-19 vaccine is being distributed across 83 Pennsylvania hospitals. The Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is packaged in trays of 100 doses, with the state receiving 975 of those trays this week, and an undetermined number of doses in the days after.
"They give us an estimate of what that is (the number of doses the state will receive), but really when it gets much closer to the time is when we get an estimate of what we're going to get," said Levine, who stressed there is expected to be a limited number of the vaccines at first as manufacturers continue to produce them. The Pfizer vaccine requires 2 doses, 21 days apart.
"It might be spring into summer until we might have enough vaccine received from the pharmaceutical companies to immunize the general public," said Levine.
However, the quantity of vaccinations in Pennsylvania is expected to rise as more vaccinations are approved by the FDA.
"Next week if the FDA and CDC approve the Moderna vaccine we'll also be getting shipments of the Moderna vaccine," said Levine.
Read Pennsylvania's vaccination plan here.
Read the CDC recommendations for the COVID-19 vaccine here.
On Monday, UPMC began to administer the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to frontline health care workers at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh. UPMC hopes all of its frontline health care workers who decide to get the vaccination will receive one by the end of January.
Pennsylvania's planned phased rollout of the vaccinations will prioritize healthcare workers, first responders, and those at high risk. Phase II will target essential workers. Phase III will include the general population.
Dr. Levine urged everyone to continue to wear masks, practice social distancing, and adhere to the statewide restrictions that went into place on Saturday as hospitals warn they could soon be overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases.
"We have to continue to take these steps until the majority of people in Pennsylvania have been vaccinated," said Levine.