Hundreds of healthcare workers across Nebraska received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine on Monday.
The state plan calls for the 15,600 first shipment of the Pfizer vaccine to go to 8 hospital systems that will share it with 9 others to inoculate front-line caregivers.
The first 2 hospitals to get the vaccine were Bergan Mercy in Omaha, which received almost 4,000 doses, and Bryan Health in Lincoln, recipient of nearly 1,000. Both got shipments in the morning and had inoculated hundreds by the end of the day.
Bryan Health expects another shipment Tuesday morning with CHI hospitals in Lincoln and Grand Island also expecting the vaccine later in the day. There is no specific date for the Pfizer vaccine to arrive at Regional West Medical Center in Scottsbluff.
The FDA is expected to approve on Thursday a vaccine manufactured by Moderna. The Panhandle is slated to get primarily the Moderna vaccine, although there’s not set timetable.
Neither vaccine will be available to the general public for at least a couple of months and public health officials say it may be much later in the year before most of the general public has a chance to be inoculated.