NEW YORK, Dec. 14 (Reuters) – New York inoculated its first health care worker, an intensive care unit in Queens, on Monday with the Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, marking a major turning point in the U.S. effort to control the virus.
Sandra Lindsay, an ICU patient, received the vaccine at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, one of the first epicenters of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, and received applause in a live broadcast with the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo.
“It didn’t feel different to inject me with another vaccine,” Lindsay said. “I am just happy to be free. I feel like the cure is coming. I hope this marks the beginning of the end of a very painful time in our history. I want to instill public confidence that the vaccine is safe. ”
Minutes after Lindsay’s injection, President Donald Trump said in a tweet: “First vaccine administered. Congratulations USA! Congratulations MUNDO! ”.
The vaccine, developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, obtained emergency use approval from federal regulators on Friday, after it was discovered to be 95% effective in a large clinical trial.
The first 2.9 million doses began shipping to distribution centers across the country on Sunday, 11 months after the United States documented its first COVID-19 infections. As of Monday, the country had recorded 16,286,343 cases and 299,489 deaths from the virus.
Hospitals in Texas, Utah and Minnesota said they also expect to receive their first doses of the vaccine on Monday at some hospitals for immediate administration.
“This is the most difficult vaccine in history. No doubt there will be setbacks, but we have done our best (…) to make everything as easy as possible. Be patient with us, “Surgeon General Jerome Adams told Fox News on Monday.
The logistical effort for vaccination is very complicated due to the need to transport and store the vaccine at less than 70 degrees Celsius, which requires huge amounts of dry ice or specialized ultra-cold freezers.
Health workers and nursing home residents will be the first to receive the vaccines in a two-dose regimen administered with an interval of approximately three weeks.
Report by Lisa Lambert, Lisa Baertlein and Gabriella Borter. Edited in Spanish by Manuel Farías and Javier Leira