FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a small bottle labeled with a "Coronavirus COVID-19 Vaccine" sticker and a medical syringe in this illustration taken October 30, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) — The first shipments of COVID-19 vaccines should be arriving at South Dakota health care facilities this week.
Doug Ekeren, President of Avera Sacred Heart Hospital in Yankton, said it will take some time to get enough doses.
“We don’t count on it until we see it on our loading dock, or in this case in our pharmacy, because the numbers do change,” Ekeren said.
The first shipments of Pfizer’s vaccine in the U.S. went out Sunday after the Food and Drug Administration approved the shot for emergency use. A second vaccine, made by Moderna, is expected to receive approval in the next few weeks.
Health care workers and those who live or work in nursing homes and long-term care facilities will be first in line to receive the shots in South Dakota. Ekeren said it will take “several months” of work to get vaccines ready for everyone.
(Jerry Oster, WNAX, contributed to this report.)
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