First COVID-19 vaccine shipment to reach St. Joseph County Thursday

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind.—The first shipment of the COVID-19 vaccines is expected to arrive in St. Joseph County on Thursday. The first doses will be given to frontline healthcare workers this week.

The first shipments of the new Pfizer vaccine will be distributed at one hospital in St. Joseph County.

St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Mishawaka is just one of 50 hospitals in Indiana that has been chosen to get one of the first batches of the vaccine.

The FDA has reported the vaccine to be more than 90 percent effective and it does require two doses to be administered several weeks apart.

Pfizer began shipping out its COVID-19 vaccine from their base near Kalamazoo, Michigan on Sunday. The vaccines are shipped in special containers packed with dry ice since the Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at ultra-cold temperatures. Shipping companies like FedEx and UPS are relying on technology like temperature monitoring and GPS trackers to ensure the vaccine doses arrive uncontaminated.

Another shipment of the Pfizer vaccine is expected to come out next week and the FDA is set to discuss another vaccine made by Moderna later today.