On Monday, Dec. 21, an allotment of 100 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine sent by the Mississippi State Department of Health arrived at Tallahatchie General Hospital in Charleston.
Within hours, many local frontline medical workers had been administered the vaccine, a process that was expected to take several days.
More hospital and other local health care employees will be offered a chance to be inoculated as future shipments of the vaccine are received, said Dr. James Wilde, TGH medical director.
Melissa Thompson, a registered nurse at Tallahatchie General Hospital, administers the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to Charleston physician Dr. Rob Carter Monday morning. Doctors, family nurse practitioners and other frontline medical workers are being offered the vaccine first because of their greater exposure to known or suspected COVID-19 patients. (Photo special to The Sun-Sentinel)
Moderna is one of two vaccines that the Food and Drug Administration has authorized for emergency use for the prevention of the novel coronavirus. The first, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, was approved by the FDA on Dec. 11. The Moderna vaccine received the green light one week later, on Dec. 18.
Within three days after Moderna's approval, shipments of the vaccine were received by state officials and had been dispatched to hospitals and other medical facilities around Mississippi.
The vaccine is being administered first to medical providers who are deemed the most essential and, because of their close daily interaction with known or suspected COVID-19 patients, are at highest risk for infection.
Registered nurse Melissa Thompson administers the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to Charleston physician Dr. James Wilde Monday morning at Tallahatchie General Hospital. (Photo special to The Sun-Sentinel)
Moderna, said to be 94.1% effective in preventing COVID-19, requires two injections given 28 days apart.
Federal, state and local health care officials, taking into account recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are determining the order in which different segments of the population are vaccinated.
Residents and staff at long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes and assisted living facilities, are reportedly the next in line to be vaccinated.
The vaccine is not yet being made available to the general public, but that is expected to happen soon.
