Covenant Health Receives First Shipment of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020

Published by Editor on December 18, 2020.
Published under News
Tags: ,

Share This Article

Google1

Covenant Health received its first shipment of the Pfizer/BioNTech (mRNA vaccine) COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020.

The first round of the COVID-19 vaccine distribution will be offered to employees working in environments that are considered high risk or high exposure to COVID-19. Receiving the vaccine is voluntary for staff.

The vaccine will be administered on a planned schedule at all Covenant Health acute care facilities. The vaccine also will be available for home health employees and employees who work in long-term care facilities. These East Tennessee facilities include:

  • Claiborne Medical Center in Tazewell
  • Cumberland Medical Center in Crossville
  • Fort Loudoun Medical Center in Lenoir City
  • Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center in Knoxville
  • LeConte Medical Center in Sevierville
  • Methodist Medical Center in Oak Ridge
  • Morristown-Hamblen Healthcare System in Morristown
  • Parkwest Medical Center in Knoxville
  • Roane Medical Center in Harriman

Additional information about the vaccine and Covenant Health’s distribution plan is included below.

Protocol and Effectiveness

  • The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine that Covenant has received consists of two injections administered 21 days apart.
  • The Pfizer vaccine has been shown to be 95% effective in preventing COVID-19 seven days after the second of two doses. 
  • The vaccine has been well-studied under Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and CDC guidance and fully evaluated for safety. The rapid deployment has been made possible by simultaneously producing the vaccine while it was being studied, resulting in the ability to quickly distribute the vaccine once safety was confirmed using strict research protocols under the CDC and the FDA.
  • The FDA only approves vaccines once they are proven to be: 1) safe and effective and 2) if the benefits outweigh the risks. Recipients may experience mild to moderate side effects, especially after the second dose, including fatigue, fever and headache. This is not a result of a COVID infection; it is the body’s response to the vaccine.
  • The COVID-19 vaccine is an m (messenger) RNA vaccine. It teaches the body to make antibodies to fight the COVID virus. There is no COVID virus in the vaccine, and it cannot give COVID to the vaccine recipient.
  • This vaccine has specific requirements for storage and dosage. Covenant Health will follow these requirements to ensure the vaccine is administered safely, according to manufacturer and FDA standards.

Quantity and Availability

  • Covenant Health anticipates receiving more vaccine doses in the future as they become available, and distribution will expand to other areas of the health system according to state and federal guidelines.
  • Following initial distribution to healthcare workers, the CDC and the FDA are coordinating plans for vaccine availability for the general public later in 2021 via physician offices, retail pharmacies and other resources.
  • As additional information becomes available, Covenant Health will continue to communicate with employees, patients and the communities served by the health system’s hospitals and other member organizations. These updates are expected to include confirmation of subsequent distribution phases based on vaccine dose availability from the manufacturer, as well as direction from the FDA and CDC.