UF Health in Gainesville receives Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines

Coronavirus vaccine arrives at UF Health in Gainesville

Video from UF Health Gainesville shows them receiving and putting away their first shipment of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - UF Health in Gainesville has received a shipment of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines.

Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine began to arrive at hospitals nationwide on Monday. Several other hospitals received shipments on Tuesday.

The first Florida dose is believed to have happened at UF Health in Jacksonville. They said that at 10:39 a.m., Dr. Leon L. Haley Jr. was vaccinated. He was followed by additional physicians, nurses, a pharmacist, and other health care workers who work in the hospital.

Dr. Leon L. Haley Jr. at UF Health is believed to be the first person in Florida to be given the COVID-19 vaccine. (Photo from UF Health)

Florida is giving vaccine priority to long-term care facilities, then healthcare workers, followed by the 65 and up community who have pre-existing medical conditions.

MORE NEWS: AdventHealth expects 1st shipment of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines

"You have an exposure, you have an infection, you have to have 10 staff isolate. That is very difficult in terms of these operations," Governor DeSantis said in regards to protecting healthcare workers and patients. "Getting these key workers vaccinated, you're going to ensure that healthcare will be able to be delivered uninterrupted."

Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine arrives at UF Health in Gainesville (Photo by UF Health)

The first batch of vaccines is nearly 180,000 doses. 20,000 will go to AdventHealth, another 81,900 doses will go to CVS and Walgreens to give to patients at long-term care facilities, and 97,500 other doses will go to five separate hospital systems.

Florida should get more than twice as many more vaccines -- between 300,000 and 500,000 vaccines -- next week, officials said.

This could especially be true as Moderna may receive emergency use authorization from the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) this week. An advisory panel will review their vaccine, which is said to be as effective as Pfizer's, on Thursday.

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