WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. — Lexington Medical Center announced Tuesday that it has received shipment of its first delivery of COVID-19 vaccines.
UPS delivered UPS delivered 2,925 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to the hospital campus in West Columbia at 9:30 a.m. The medication was packaged in a single box packed with dry ice, a tracking device and a thermometer to monitor the temperature during shipment. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine must be kept at a constant temperature of -70 degree Celsius (-94 F).
Freezers at the medical facility will maintain the doses until Lexington Medical Center, and employee vaccinations began at 3 p.m. Tuesday. Hospital administration has prioritized a schedule for staff vaccinations, taking into account the amount of time a staff member may come in contact with COVID-19 patients "and those who will benefit the most from the vaccine."
The FDA approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on December 11, via emergency authorization, "for the prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in individuals 16 years of age and older."
The vaccine is a two-dose treatment process -- single doses are administered three weeks apart, injected into muscle tissue.
