Pfizer Vaccine FDA and New York State Panel-Approved: First Delivery Expected to Arrive Tomorrow

By Yehudit Garmaise 

  For the vaccine distribution to begin, first to frontline health workers and residents and staffs of nursing homes, in New York City: all systems are finally a go. 

   Late Thursday night, New York state's independent review panel, which was appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo approved the use of the Pfizer vaccine, and on Friday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine.

   This morning on Twitter, Gov. Cuomo tweeted that the first shipment of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine will reach New York by Monday, and healthcare workers and nursing home staff and patients could be getting their shots within hours of the vaccine’s arrival. 

   “Hope is on the way, and it’s departing from Kalamazoo, Michigan,” the governor happily tweeted along with a video of Fed Ex trucks leaving the warehouse. “We are getting closer to the finish line.” 

    The governor has said that he plans to begin distributing the initial Pfizer delivery for an estimated 170,000 people in New York state tomorrow, when the first shipment of enough dosages to vaccinate 72,000 New Yorkers is expected to arrive at several FedEx locations, including one in Hunts Point in The Bronx, before being sent out statewide.

    On Dec. 21, the second shipment of enough vaccines for 346,000 New Yorkers is expected from Moderna, which still awaiting federal approval, Gov. Cuomo said Friday. 

   Once nursing home patients and staff and high-risk hospital workers are vaccinated, first responders and essential workers will get their shots, followed by the general public, Gov. Cuomo has said.

(Mike Groll/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)