Editor's note: This story was originally published by Colorado Newsline. Read the original story here.
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Colorado officials expect to receive the state’s first shipment of COVID-19 vaccine doses Monday morning, and the first Coloradans will be inoculated early Monday afternoon, according to the office of Gov. Jared Polis.
The first shipments of the Pfizer vaccine left the company’s Portage, Michigan, manufacturing plant early Sunday. The vaccine earned emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration on Friday. It is the first vaccine to achieve such authorization, and doses of it are being shipped throughout the country.
It will arrive in Colorado at a location that has yet to be revealed publicly. State officials scheduled to receive the shipment include Polis, National Guard Brigadier General and director of Joint Vaccine Task Force Scott Sherman, and state epidemiologist Rachel Herlihy.
The first inoculations with be administered to front-line health care workers in Fort Collins.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment last week announced the locations that will receive the first doses of two vaccines. The state expects to get 46,800 doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech and 95,600 doses of a second vaccine, pending emergency authorization, developed by Moderna. The Moderna vaccine could arrive sometime the week of Dec. 21.
Also last week, the CDPHE published a revised COVID-19 vaccination plan, which prioritizes the most at-risk health care workers and residents and staff of long-term care facilities.
According to the latest data, 288,193 Coloradans have been infected with the coronavirus. The number of people who have died in the state with COVID-19 is 3,598, including 3,012 who died due to the disease.
Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a network of news outlets supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: [email protected]. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and Twitter.
