First doses of COVID-19 vaccine could arrive in Portland this weekend – KGW.com

Health care workers could potentially receive the first shots the vaccine as early as next week.

PORTLAND, Ore Legacy Health in Portland expects to get a shipment of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine sometime this weekend, Dec. 12-13, with the possibility of administering the first injections by next Wednesday.

A super cold freezer inside a Legacy building will hold 2,000 doses of the vaccine.

Dr. Dominic Chan, a pharmacist by training, is in charge of the vaccine rollout for the Legacy Health system. He said the vials at will be kept at minus 75-degrees Celsius, which is minus 103-degrees Fahrenheit.

Weve gotten a shipment confirmation, so we are watching those shipment tracking with pretty baited breath and excitement, Dr. Chan said.

You can see the entire interview with Dr. Chan here.

The first vaccines will be for health care workers. But with 13,000 people who work for Legacy Health, deciding who will get the first 2,000 doses is not an easy task.

Dr. Chan said the philosophy is guided by equity, not titles.

"The hospitals cant operate if we dont have the individuals that are keeping the hygiene between patients within a room our environmental services people," he said. "Our patients need to eat, so our dietary food services have to be prioritized as well. Our lab services. The people that go and admit these patients and counsel these patients, bring the coffee up. They are just as equal in importance as our physicians and nurses, so its a very -- I just want to say its a high priority for us to establish equity in our approach to who we vaccinate.

After FDA approval, another federal group of doctors will review the Pfizer vaccine and so will a group of doctors in the western states. It should all happen very quickly and may be completed by the end of the weekend.

Dr. Chan stressed that Legacy will not rush to get the first doses out. He wants to make sure its done right.

We are going to give ourselves a couple days to read the documents and read to the very syllable and sentence of all the final recommendations," he said, "just to make sure all the operations that we have been standing up will be aligned and we wont be caught flat-footed with one small one-degree pivot that the regulatory bodies have stated. So, probably days. Days not weeks. Couple, few days after, Dr. Chan said.

He said that "Wednesday through Tuesday" is a likely timeframe for the rollout to begin.

Kaiser Permanente expects to get 1,000 doses of the vaccine and could begin injections as soon as Friday, Dec. 18.

A spokesman for Providence Health systems also expects a shipment very soon, although the exact amount is not clear. That system is preparing to give shots to its frontline workers as soon as next week.

State officials at the Oregon Health Authority said the state expects a total of 35,000 doses will be delivered by Dec. 15, with 10,725 being sent to pharmacies that will administer the injections at skilled nursing facilities.

Because all 35,000 doses will be the Pfizer vaccine, which needs to be stored at minus 70-degrees Celsius, they will be delivered along the I-5 corridor, where hospitals and universities have freezers that can safely store the vaccine.

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First doses of COVID-19 vaccine could arrive in Portland this weekend - KGW.com