MIDLAND, Texas — The new COVID-19 vaccines are en route to Midland Memorial Hospital and could be here as soon as December 11 or 12. They couldn't come soon enough with hospitals ready to burst at the seams, but the light at the end of the tunnel is near. Health leaders believe this vaccine is the key to getting through the pandemic.
Midland Memorial Hospital will be the first hospital in the Permian Basin to get the COVID-19 vaccine, and they will receive about 1950 doses of the new vaccine.
"We are scheduled to receive 1,950 doses. We have the sub-zero freezer in house, in our pharmacy, capable of holding even more than that so we have plenty of storage. The freezer is there and calibrated," Val Sparks, MMH infections preventionist, said.
Hospital employees will be first in line to receive the new vaccine, but other health officials in the Midland area may also get the opportunity to receive the vaccine depending on who ends up taking the vaccine.
"We are offering it to our healthcare workers, to our physicians, and allied health professionals who are on board here, and then we have reached out to other physician offices in the community through our premier group, through Basin MD," Sparks said.
To show their confidence in the vaccine, the hospital plans to give the first doses on camera to five well-known individuals in the community.
"We actually will have the first five because each vial, once it’s thawed, contains five doses, and we don’t want to waste it. So we will give the first five fairly rapidly. So we will have the first five people here lined up ready to vaccinate as soon as it’s thawed," Sparks said.
The Pfizer shot requires two doses, and once all 1,950 are given, the state will send the second round a couple weeks later.
"We have to report that to the state within 24 hours, and the state will keep count of how many we have used and then they will replace it because for whatever we give we have to revaccinate in 21 days those same individuals. So the state is monitoring that through a computer system," Sparks said.