First Shipments Of COVID-19 Vaccine Arriving In St. Louis

Mercy Hospital in St. Louis has received its first shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine Monday morning (December 14).

Frontline healthcare workers are slated to receive the first doses of the vaccines — strongly encouraged but not required — beginning this afternoon.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services confirmed that the state will receive 1,000 doses of the vaccine.

Two VA sites, including the St. Louis VA Health Care System, are also two of the first sites to begin receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

The sites were picked because they can “vaccinate large numbers of people and store the vaccines at extremely cold temperatures,” according to the VA.

“VA is well prepared and positioned to begin COVID-19 vaccinations,” VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said in a VA news release. “Our ultimate goal is to offer it to all Veterans and employees who want to be vaccinated.”

The state reported more than 18,500 new cases between December 5 and December 11, averaging 2,652 cases each day.

That’s a rate of 302 cases per 100,000 residents, according to the Public Health Dashboard, updated Monday. More than 2,600 patients were hospitalized during that time span.

Missouri’s positivity rate between those dates was 17.8%, the Public Health Dashboard shows.

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