The province’s very first COVID-19 vaccine will be administered over the lunch hour. The very first vaccine recipient will get their jab over the lunch hour at MUN’s Medical School.

The Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, Premier Andrew Furey, and Eastern Health CEO David Diamond will also be on hand for the event.

A shipment of the first 1,950 Pfizer vaccines arrived in the province yesterday, but the media did not have access to the event.

There had been some speculation about whether or not the administration of the province’s first vaccine would be a media event, with government officials citing privacy concerns.

Today’s event takes place at 12:30, VOCM News will be there.

The provincial COVID update is also coming a little later today with details of the plan surrounding the official rollout of the vaccine. This afternoon’s update is coming at 2:30 p.m. VOCM News will carry it live.

Meanwhile, the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health calls it the beginning of the end of life disrupted by COVID-19.

Health officials estimate they will be able to vaccinate almost 30,000 people in the province between now and March.

The first people to get the Pfizer vaccine will include seniors in group settings such as nursing homes, health care workers at the highest risk of contracting COVID-19, the very elderly, and remote or isolated indigenous communities.

The earliest an average, healthy person can expect to be vaccinated is June.

At this point, Pfizer says their vaccine can’t be moved from site to site, so regional health authorities will coordinate the movement of health care staff to a common vaccination site.

Read the article on VOCM here.