The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines have arrived in Nebraska.
“They’re all excited. I mean we’re running around. Everybody wanted to see the vile, everybody wanted to see the container it came in,” Mike Tiesi, vice president of pharmacy at CHI Health says.
CHI Health’s Bergan Mercy Hospital in Omaha received their first shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine around 6:30 this morning.
Tiesi says they had to make quick work of the process.
“Press a stop button on a digital tracker, three minutes from the time we took the dry ice package off the top and place it in the ultra low freezer, which we did well under three minutes.”
The hospital received four boxes that contained 975 doses each for a total of 3,900 vaccines, most are already spoken for.
“We’ve been able to fill the first slots. We’ve needed to be cautious about that and make sure we spread those doses out across different departments to make sure we don’t have people feeling under the weather,” he says.
Other CHI Health hospitals will also receive doses today.
Bryan Health posted on Twitter, they received their shipment.
Hope is here! We received our first shipment of @pfizer vaccines with administration for the first wave of frontline staff and doctors happening today. #covid19 #LNK pic.twitter.com/UJzuOPzDRW
— Bryan Health (@Bryan_Health) December 14, 2020
The state is expected to receive all of the 15,600 doses within 24 to 48 hours, according to the state’s chief medical officer Dr. Gary Anthone.
“It is truly a great moment for everybody,” Tiesi says.