Florida gives first COVID-19 vaccine dose to nurse at Tampa hospital

close

Video

Dr. Marc Siegel on vaccines arriving to hospitals: ‘This is science battling back’

Professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center Dr. Marc Siegel discusses the vaccine shipments headed to hospitals.

Florida gave the first dose of its initial coronavirus vaccine supply to a nurse at Tampa General Hospital. The shot was given during a press conference with Gov. Ron DeSantis, who said that health care workers would be the first to receive the vaccines.

“Today we will have shots going in arms,” he said moments before the first dose was given to Vanessa Arroyo, a 31-year-old nurse. “We will have health care workers getting vaccinated much sooner than anybody would have anticipated six months ago.”

NY GIVES FIRST CORONAVIRUS VACCINE TO HEALTH CARE WORKER

Arroyo works in the hospital’s new COVID-19 unit and was among the first in the country to receive the vaccine. Her shot came hours after another nurse in New York was administered what is believed to be the first dose in the U.S.  Sandra Lindsay, a critical care nurse at Northwell Health’s Long Island Jewish Medical Center, received the first of two shots during a press conference hosted by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The initial rollouts of the vaccine are being heralded as the beginning of the end to the pandemic. However, Surgeon General Jerome Adams said the end is not here quite yet.

“It’s a great day, it’s a historic day, this is the beginning of the end, but we’ve still got a few miles left to run in this race,” Adams said while on “Fox & Friends.”

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE 

DeSantis said the state expects to receive more doses of the vaccine through the week and is hopeful the FDA will grant emergency use authorization (EUA) to Moderna’s vaccine candidate, possibly seeing even more vaccines arrive through next week.