Tennessee’s health chief said Tuesday that the state is expecting to receive its first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine around Dec. 15.
In a press conference, Lisa Piercey said the new information comes after having conversations this week with the federal government.
“We are ready to deploy those immediately upon receipt,” Piercey said. “The first people that will get this is what we call our Phase 1A participants. Phase 1A will be frontline health care workers and first responders.”
Piercey said it’s unclear how many doses the state will receive, and that the state will continue progressing through the different phases as they continue to receive doses.
Last week, Pfizer announced that Tennessee was one of four states selected to participate in a pilot program for the delivery of its COVID-19 vaccine.
According to a news release, the states were chosen “based on their differences in size, population diversity and immunization infrastructure. Lessons learned through this program will help support all states in development of effective immunization programs for this COVID-19 vaccine.”
