Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine To Arrive In The Central Valley This Week

The first approved COVID-19 vaccine is on its way to the Central Valley.

The Pfizer vaccine was approved for emergency use by the FDA on Friday, December 11.

Fresno County will be one of the first 145 sites in California to receive the vaccine this week.

According to ABC30, the first batch of the Pfizer vaccine will be delivered to Fresno County in less than 24 hours.

Joe Prado, Divison manager of community health, says healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients are the first to be administered the vaccine.

"It is not just nurses and the doctors, it is everyone who works in the high-risk setting," said Prado. "That could be the janitorial staff, that is the support staff."

Tulare County will receive 3,000 doses of the vaccine early next week, according to Carrie Monteiro with the Tulare County Health and Human Services Agency.

Those doses will be broken down into three distributions of about 1,000 that will go to Kaweah Delta Hospital, Sierra View Medical Center in Porterville, and nursing homes.

"We are ready for distribution of this vaccine as soon as it is delivered to us here in Tulare County," said Monteiro.

In Fresno County, Councilmember Esmeralda Soria is working to get essential workers further up the list to be vaccinated.

"There are thousands of workers out there," she said. "Farmworkers, factory workers that are working seven days a week or six days a week."

Prado also says the Central Valley could receive shipments of the Moderna vaccine next, which is still pending FDA authorization.

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