First shipment of COVID-19 vaccine arrives in Lafayette

The first shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine arrived Thursday morning at IU Health Arnett.

Story tonight -- iu health arnett is preparing to administer the pfizer bio-n-tech covid-19 vaccine to health care workers across tippecanoe county.

A shipment of the vaccine arrived this morning and will undergo several crucial steps before its rdy for injection tomorrow morning.

News 18's joe paul was at the hospital this morning to watch as vials of the vaccine were unpacked.

He joins us live to share how staff are preparing for high demand over the weekend.

Joe?

The nationwide demand for this vaccine is huge.

But when the shipment arrived at nine this morning, it was actually about an hour-and-a-half earlier than officials were expecting.

And despite all the anticipation surrounding this vaccine.

It was delivered in an unsuspecting cardboard box packed full of dry ice.

< "i can honestly say this is probably one of the best days ever."

Abby brendel says she was jumping for joy when she received the shipping confirmation.

She's the pharmacy operations coordinator for iu health arnett.

And she was the first to handle the 975 doses of the pfizer covid-19 vaccine delivered to the hospital thursday morning.

"i just can't imagine what it's going to be like to get vaccinations started and be able to actually, hopefully start going back to regular life.

I mean, everyone wants to do that.

I want our health care providers to not have to go home in fear everyday that they're taking the virus back to their family."

The vaccine is stored at negative 70 degrees celsius in an ultra-low temperature freezer in preparation of vaccinations beginning friday morning.

"we will take vials out of the freezer move them to a refrigerator to thaw and then in the morning they'll be thawed and in the morning we'll get those vials, we'll take them to our vaccine clinic, dilute them and draw them up into syringes, and they'll be ready to go for those first few patients."

The demand is high among frontline health care workers.

"our schedule is completely booked from 9 a.m.

To 5 p.m.

With six vaccinations every ten minutes."

The hospital will receive another shipment of the pfizer vaccine as soon as tuesday.

Dr. james bien, chief medical officer at iu health arnett, says health officials are also anxiously awaiting the fda's approval of the moderna vaccine.

"the science behind this vaccine and the soon-to-be-approved one is very encouraging, really sound and incredibly effective, and so i can tell you people are excited, grateful, many people are tearful."

Bien says he expects the vaccine to be available to the general public as soon as this spring.

In the meantime he continues to urge people to wear masks, social distance and avoid large gatherings for christmas and new year's.

Reporting live in lafayette, joe paul, news 18.

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