REMSA staff received its first shipment of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday.
Moderna started shipping out vaccines nationwide on Sunday after Friday's FDA approval. The week before the FDA also approved Pfizer's vaccine.
Earlier Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci got his first dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine in Bethesda, Maryland.
National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and six other NIH frontline workers also got the same vaccine.
The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention says that at least 4.6 million vaccine doses have been delivered across the U.S.
Most Americans will have to wait months before getting their inoculations, after frontline workers and residents in long term care facilities get vaccines first.
Related: First Shipments of Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Arrive Across Nevada
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Meanwhile, the Southern Nevada Health District received 15,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine, also on Tuesday.
Most of this shipment will be used by the Health District to administer vaccine to Tier 1 health care personnel. The Health District continues to receive vaccine in phases. To date, the Southern Nevada Health District has received 27,675 doses of COVID-19 vaccine in addition to 16, 478 doses of Moderna vaccine being shipped directly to Clark County hospitals this week.
The Health District’s vaccine plan mirrors the state’s distribution plan which is a tiered distribution plan to ensure the initial supplies of vaccine are provided to the critical populations identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Health care personnel and additional groups most at risk for direct exposure to the virus are included in Tier I. Long-term care facilities are also included in Tier I and are receiving their vaccine supplies from pharmacy providers.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration. Both vaccines are a two-dose series, and people receiving the first dose will need to receive a second dose three to four weeks after the first vaccination is administered.
(Southern Nevada Health District contributed to this report.)
