Tennessee Receives First Shipment Of Moderna Vaccine

Tennessee Is Slated To Receive 115,200 Doses Of The Vaccine Over The Next Two Weeks. Smaller Hospitals That Did Not Receive The Pfizer Vaccine Should Receive The Moderna Vaccine Next Week.

Photo: Boxes containing the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine are prepared to be shipped at the McKesson distribution center in Olive Branch, Miss., Sunday, Dec. 20, 2020.

Photo Credit: Paul Sancya / AP

The Center Square [By Vivian Jones]-

A first shipment of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine was delivered Monday to Tennessee’s 95 county health departments.

Tennessee Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey administered the first dose of the vaccine to a paramedic in Rutherford County on Monday afternoon.

Tennessee expects to receive 115,200 doses of the vaccine over the next two weeks. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the Moderna vaccine for emergency use Friday.

“We are excited to receive these additional vaccines and see our COVID-19 vaccination activities underway,” Piercey said in a statement.

The Moderna vaccine comes in addition to 56,500 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which arrived in the state last week. Piercey said the state learned an unexpected shipment of 40,000 additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine will arrive in the state Tuesday or Wednesday.

Doses of the Moderna vaccine will be administered to frontline hospital health care workers, first responders, long-term care facility residents and staff, as well as home health care providers.

Small hospitals that did not receive the Pfizer vaccine are expected to receive the Moderna vaccine next week, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.

Tennessee has the second-highest average of daily cases per 100,000 people over the past seven days, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state surpassed more than 6,000 COVID-19 deaths over the weekend.