Health Care Centers, State Officials Prepare For Influx Of Injections

USA Today: Role-Playing, Planning For Earthquakes, Mass Training: US Health Care Centers Prep For Arrival Of COVID-19 Vaccine
Hospitals and medical centers spent Sunday preparing for the first COVID-19 vaccine to arrive Monday morning, a massive undertaking that began when a caravan of semis guarded by unmarked police cars pulled out of the Pfizer manufacturing plant in Portage, Michigan, just after dawn. Onlookers applauded and cheered as the tractor-trailers carrying 189 boxes of vaccine slowly rolled out. The doses held in those cartons will be injected into the arms of health care workers in all 50 states beginning Monday morning. (Weise, 12/13)

CNN: US Readies For First Covid-19 Vaccinations As Country Nears 300,000 Deaths
It's up to states to allocate their share of vaccines, but the CDC has recommended that frontline health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities get the vaccine first. Officials warn it could be months before the vaccine becomes available to many Americans as the virus continues to surge, breaking grim state and national records. (Cullinane, 12/14)

The New York Times: First Coronavirus Vaccines Head To States, Starting Historic Effort 
At Novant Health in Winston-Salem, N.C., the new ultracold freezers are ready — enough to eventually house more than 500,000 doses of the first coronavirus vaccine approved in the United States. In Los Angeles, the Cedars-Sinai medical center has installed extra security cameras to protect the secret location of its soon-to-arrive supply of the vaccine. (Goodnough, Abelson and Hoffman, 12/12)

In updates from Michigan, Massachusetts, Texas and Alaska —

Detroit Free Press: TCF Center To Be COVID-19 Vaccination Site, Counties Preparing Sites
Across metro Detroit, county and city leaders are getting ready for the arrival of coronavirus vaccines, lining up sites for vaccination clinics with hopes that mass immunizations will bring about the end of the pandemic. The city of Detroit has selected the TCF Center's parking garage as a primary site for drive-up COVID-19 vaccinations as pharmaceutical giant Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine is on the verge of regulatory approval and could be ready to ship out to hospitals and health departments in the next few days, possibly as early as Sunday. (Hall and Jordan Shamus, 12/13)

Boston Globe: With Vaccine, Mass. This Week Goes From ‘Defense To Offense’ Against COVID-19
The earliest shipments of COVID-19 vaccine are expected to arrive at some Massachusetts hospitals starting Monday, officials said, as the state readies for a distribution effort that initially seeks to vaccinate thousands of medical workers and support staff in hospitals, as well as employees and residents of long-term-care facilities. A significant portion of the state’s initial allocation of 59,475 vaccine doses, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, is being shipped directly to several area hospitals and health care systems. Tufts Medical Center could receive vaccine as early as midday Monday, while Massachusetts General Brigham and UMass Memorial Health Care each could get deliveries on Tuesday, officials said. (Hilliard, 12/13)

Houston Chronicle: Thousands Of Doses Of The New COVID Vaccine Are Coming To Houston, With MD Anderson First And Only Stop Monday
Months of waiting for a COVID-19 vaccine to arrive in Houston are almost — but not quite — over, as hospitals prepare to move the first doses from sealed subzero shipments and into the arms of thousands of front-line health care workers this week. About 19,500 doses of Pfizer’s vaccine will arrive Monday at four medical centers in Texas: MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Methodist Dallas Medical Center, Wellness 360 at UT Health San Antonio and UT Health Austin’s Dell Medical School, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services, which is overseeing deliveries of the first vaccine approved and shipped in the United States. (Begley and Ackerman, 12/13)

Anchorage Daily News: The First Doses Of A COVID-19 Vaccine Are Expected To Arrive In Alaska In The Next Couple Days
Alaska is expected to receive an initial 35,100 doses of the vaccine from drugmaker Pfizer. Those doses are specifically designated for people deemed highest priority for initial vaccination by federal and state allocation committees. Those individuals include people who work on the front lines in the state’s hospitals, which officials hope will alleviate some of the major staffing issues that Alaska has seen recently. Health care staff have been in quarantine or isolation and away from work after positive tests or recent exposures, limiting the number of staffed beds available to patients and putting pressure on the entire health care system. In addition, community health aides and practitioners are prioritized for the initial vaccine round, along with emergency services personnel. (Krakow, 12/13)