Frontline health care workers like doctors and nurses at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital will be the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, Mayor London Breed said.
The first rounds of the Pfizer vaccine are part of an initial 12,675 doses the city is receiving from the state and federal government.
For now, the doses are being provided to acute care facilities, city officials said.
In accordance with the state’s vaccine prioritization plan, residents in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities could receive the vaccine next as more supplies become available.
The vaccine won’t likely be available for most residents until later in 2021.
“This is a historic day for our city and, we hope, the start of a turning point in our response to COVID-19,” Breed said in a statement. “This has been a really tough year, and this is good news for our city and for the fight against COVID. It gives us some much-needed hope during an otherwise challenging and uncertain time.”
On Monday, San Francisco Department of Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax predicted the city could run out of intensive care unit beds within the next three to four weeks if the city continues to experience a surge in cases.
“We are embarking on a vaccine distribution effort unlike anything this country or San Francisco has ever seen,” Colfax said Tuesday. “While this is a significant moment that we should celebrate, we have a long road ahead of us. We must also remain focused on the task at hand–overcoming the current surge and saving lives, because even after the vaccine, we still need to continue using the preventative measure that we’ve come to know so well in the past year, covering our faces, and social distancing for a long time to come.”
The vaccine requires two shots, spaced 21 days apart, in order to be effective, according to city officials.
The city expects to receive a second round of vaccine doses sometime next week and every week thereafter. More information about the vaccine can be found at www.sf.gov/information/about-covid-19-vaccines.