Washington state health officials say they’re expecting to receive the first doses of the Pfizer Covid vaccine next week.
Michele Roberts is the acting assistant secretary of the Washington Department of Health. She told reporters Wednesday that the state expects to initially receive 62,000 doses from the federal government. That’s if an advisory committee approves the vaccine for emergency use on Thursday. She says the state expects to receive 222,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in a second shipment before the end of December.
“Another new detail is that we’ve been told that we should get about 180-thousand doses of the Moderna vaccine by the end of December as well. This is the first estimate we’ve gotten from the federal government about the Moderna doses," Roberts said.
That’s if the federal committee approves the Moderna vaccine when it meets on December 17.
Roberts says the state is still working on how and where to distribute the vaccines. She says the Department of Health won’t divulge which providers will receive the shipments. She says 189 organizations have been approved to receive and administer the new vaccines, with applications from other providers still being processed.