The first vaccine shipment moving through Louisville's Worldport facility Sunday.
Good evening and thank you for joining us for fox 44 news at 9- im tyler druin - 165 more cases of covid-19 ripping through vanderburgh county.... the entire tri- state feeling the impacts of the virus ... but some good news could be just hours away for some in west kentucky... and other parts of the tri- state.... the first vaccine shipment moving through louisville's worldport facility sunday... worldport - the largest ups hub in the world... just two hours east of evansville up i-64... more than 300 freezers full of the vaccine left pfizers facilities by truck this morning headed to the airport.... as part of "operation warp speed" the vaccines will then be shipped via next day air to select destinations... including hospitals, clinics and other medical facilities, to vaccinate healthcare workers.... ups and fedex are teaming up with the federal government to deliver the first doses..
Nursing home residents are expected to be among the first to receive the vaccine as well... correspondent kris van cleave reports from ups' worldport in louisville..... nearly three million doses of pfizer's vaccine began shipping across the u-s from the drug maker's michigan plant on sunday.
As the country approaches 300 thousand covid-19 deaths, it's an historic step in the nation's most elaborate inoculation project ever.
''the way we see light at the end of the tunnel, the way we get through this is to achieve herd immunity.
And that means we need to vaccinate a significant number of people in this country, including those who are hesitant.'' as winter nears, the country is grappling with record case numbers, and daily deaths exceeding three thousand for the first time last week.
''we're likely to see a peak at some point in january, but the burden on the hospital system is going to continue for another three weeks past that.'' u-p-s vice president captain houston mills piloted the first flight sunday carrying vaccine to the u- p-s hub in louisville, acknowledging it's the most precious cargo he's ever flown.
''this is definitely hope.
There's a lot of people who worked long and hard to get us to this moment.'' in the building behind us, approximately 75 boxes of coronavirus vaccine are being sorted and loaded onto planes for delivery in more than 30 cities monday morning.c-d-c director robert redfield signed off on the fda's emergency use authorization for pfizer's vaccine late friday.now it can now be given to americans 16 and older as early as monday.
Kris van cleave/cbs news/louisville, kentucky
So far, approximately 100 doctors, nurses and employees have received the first dose of the vaccine.
