Cape Cod Healthcare received its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccine on Monday.
The nonprofit hospital company isn’t saying yet how many doses it has received or when frontline employees will begin getting vaccinated.
CEO Mike Lauf said last week that the first batch will go to workers in clinical care positions and others who could be exposed on the job to COVID-19.
“We anticipate that the doses we do get will be able to take care of our frontline staff, both COVID-facing and others in clinical areas, in its entirety,” he said.
Lauf will answer questions Tuesday, according to Cape Cod Healthcare’s director of marketing, Christina Peaslee.
The company owns two specialized freezers required to store the Pfizer vaccine at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit.
Gov. Charlie Baker issued a vaccine schedule Dec. 9.
It calls for Phase 1 to last through mid February and include, in order of priority: health care workers doing direct and COVID-facing care; long-term care facilities, rest homes and assisted living facilities; police, fire and emergency medical services; congregate care settings, including shelters and correctional facilities; home-based health care workers; and health care workers doing non-COVID facing care.
Phase 2 of the plan is scheduled to begin in mid February and last through mid-to-late April. It includes people with two or more pre-existing conditions that pose a high risk for complications; workers in the following fields: early education, K-12, transit, grocery, food and agriculture, sanitation, public works, and public health; and adults 65 or older with a pre-existing condition.
The third phase, for the general public, is scheduled to begin in April once Phase 2 is complete.
