UC Irvine Medical Center and St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange became the first two facilities to receive the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday, Dec. 16.

Dr. Clayton Chau, Director of the Orange County Health Agency, said local hospitals must register with the California Department of Public Health and OCHA to submit a plan to distribute the vaccine to employees.

On Wednesday, Dec. 16, Nurse Michael Lowman of St. Joseph’s Medical Center became the first person to be vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine in Orange County.

The county has been expecting 25,350 doses of the vaccine since last week. The doses arrived Wednesday, Dec. 16, and within a few hours the county had administered the first dose to a health care worker.

UC Irvine Health has estimated it will administer the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine to at least 3,000 health care workers. Those high-risk health care workers will need a second dose within three weeks of their initial vaccinations.

During a press conference at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Chau explained that in addition to the 25,000 doses, the county expects an additional shipment of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine to arrive within the week.

“We will have a second shipment of [the] first dose from Pfizer, sometime next week, that will come in at about 17,000 or so,” he said.

Chau, who recently became a member of the Irvine COVID-19 Task Force, expressed optimism about the arrival of more vaccine doses.

Chau added that once the Federal Drug Administration reviews and grants emergency approval of the Moderna-manufactured vaccine, the county should expect more than 20,000 doses.

“If, this Saturday, the FDA authorizes Moderna, then Orange County, within a week, will get roughly 32,000 first dose of Moderna, as well,” said Chau.

The FDA is scheduled to review the Moderna vaccine for emergency use on Dec. 19.

Despite the incoming doses, much more will be needed, according to Chau.

“That’s not enough, because in Orange County there are close to 200,000 health care workers alone,” he said. “And first responder, we have about 12,000.”

OCHA has deployed Mobile Field Hospitals to bring additional beds to the county as O.C.’s intensive care unit capacity continues to shrink.

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