A nurse at Kaiser Permanente in East Hollywood was amongst the first to be inoculated
Last Friday, the U.S. FDA authorized it’s first COVID-19 vaccine by Pfizer, allowing the drug to be distributed across the nation. Governor Gavin Newsom, Mayor Eric Garcetti and L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis visited Kaiser Permanente in East Hollywood where five nurses received the shot on Monday.
History made.
Helen Cordova, a nurse in an intensive care unit in LA, became one of the first Californians to get vaccinated today. pic.twitter.com/Ey4bR44aBl
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) December 14, 2020
The first batch of 33,150 out of about 327,000 doses in all, arrived over the weekend with a FedEx plane landing at LAX on Sunday night. Most of it will go to hospitals to be administered to healthcare workers. However, some counties intend to provide some for nursing facilities.
According to Newsom, California is planning to get around 2.1 million doses by the end of the year. At least 83,000 doses are expected to arrive in Los Angeles County this week.
Hope has arrived. https://t.co/wkKzEwsGht
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) December 14, 2020
Kim Taylor, an emergency room nurse at Kaiser, and Dr. Brian Thompson, an ER doctor, were two of the first to receive the drug.
“We frontline workers have been working around the clock over the past nine months, sacrificing so much of what we do and love to take care of our patients,” Taylor said. “We’ve been doing this while trying to take care of our own families and keep them safe. What I want you guys to know is that help is on the way. Today is just the first step.”
While Kaiser was one of the first to receive the deliveries, 24 other sites will receive shipments by Tuesday. Vaccines are only expected to become available to the rest of the public in spring next year.
The Governor stressed that while this is light at the end of the tunnel for a region that has been utterly devastated by the pandemic, “we are still in the tunnel.”
With the state’s current trajectory, local health officials expect the numbers to explode after the holidays with L.A. County breaking records for coronavirus hospitalizations over the weekend.
Featured Image: California Governor Gavin Newsom via Twitter