With the Pfizer vaccine expected to gain FDA approval any day now, DC is getting ready to inoculate its frontline healthcare workers and first responders. The District’s initial allotment of doses will go to six medical sites in the city that have the necessary equipment to store the vaccine. These sites include MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Howard University Hospital, the George Washington University Hospital, Children’s National Hospital, Kaiser Permanente, and MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
During a press conference Thursday, DC Health Director LaQuandra Nesbitt said those six sites would also help distribute the vaccines to seven other healthcare groups. Those additional organizations include DC Fire and EMS, HSC Pediatric Center, National Rehabilitation Hospital, Psychiatric Institute of Washington, Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital, Sibley Memorial Hospital, and United Medical Center.
The District will receive 6,825 doses in its initial allotment, which will be used for the highest-risk portion of the city’s 85,000 healthcare workers. Nesbitt says she expects DC will be able to get additional allotments of the vaccine on a weekly basis.
Jane is a Chicago transplant who now calls Cleveland Park her home. Before joining Washingtonian, she wrote for Smithsonian Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she studied journalism and opera.
