MIDLAND, Texas — Midland Memorial Hospital is expecting its shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine to arrive either December 16 or 17. Hospital workers are more than ready to get the vaccine.
Four Texas hospitals got the COVID-19 vaccine on December 14. Located in Houston, Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio, hundreds of health care workers have now received the first dose of their COVID-19 vaccination regimen.
"Only four locations got it today. San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, and Houston. Four specific healthcare agencies, and then tomorrow there is about 12 and it just kind of runs up and down the east part of Texas," Val Sparks, Midland Memorial's infections preventionist said.
The vaccine could come as soon as Wednesday, but either way, Midland Memorial expects it this week.
"We expect it Wednesday or Thursday. We are in the first-week allotment. We’ve been told and we can see our name on the list, but we have not been told exactly what day it will arrive," Sparks said.
Even though Midland Memorial won't see the vaccine when they initially expected, Sparks isn't concerned about having to wait a few more days.
"Our healthcare workers have been practicing for 10 months safely with the PPE. They are anxious to get it, and I want to be able to offer it as soon as possible. However, at this point waiting two to three days is not going to change anything here at Midland Memorial," Sparks said.
When the vaccine finally does arrive, Midland Memorial is prepared to start vaccinating immediately.
"We are ready to go. We were prepared today. We had our staffing lined up, we had our paperwork lined up, our timeslots. We are going to be doing five [vaccinations] every 10 minutes," Sparks said.