San Bernardino County was among the first in the state today to receive doses of the recently approved Moderna vaccine. The 21,650 doses received by the County today are being shipped to health care partners throughout the county and will be administered to frontline health care workers beginning immediately.
Moderna joins Pfizer as the only vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use to fight COVID-19. Thousands of health care professionals in the county have received the vaccine, and with more shipments expected weekly, it is the hope of public health officials that there will be enough vaccines for all frontline hospital workers by end of this week.
“For several months, San Bernardino County has been working aggressively with the state and our countywide health system to craft a plan for shipping, storage and distribution of vaccines once they became available,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Curt Hagman. “This preparation put us in an excellent position to get doses to these frontline heroes. It is our hope that we will have given the first dose to all of our frontline health care workers by the first or second week of January.”
Both vaccines require two doses, 21 days apart for the Pfizer vaccine and 28 days for Moderna, and both have shown to be at least 94% effective at preventing symptomatic cases.