BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Vice President Mike Pence is visiting Bloomington Tuesday, just a day after the first COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Indiana.
Pence will visit a vaccine production facility, where he will lead a roundtable discussion on Operation Warp Speed.
The Vice President will return to Washington D.C. later in the evening.
The FDA approved the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine last week.
The FDA decision kickstarted an unprecedented vaccination campaign needed to eventually defeat the virus.
In an interview Friday on Good Morning America, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine could be administered in the coming days.
"Just a little bit ago the FDA informed Pfizer that they to intend to proceed towards an authorization for their vaccine," Azar told GMA. "So we could be seeing people getting vaccinated, Monday, Tuesday of next week."
Azar's estimation proved to be correct. Vaccines began arriving at hospitals Monday, with health care workers getting the first shots. In Indiana, six health care workers at Parkview Health in Fort Wayne were the first to receive the shots.
Indiana Indiana University Health is ready for the vaccine to arrive.
IU Health's ultra-cold freezers are ready to store 975 doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
If the vaccine arrives by Tuesday as promised, vaccinations will begin Wednesday.
"We feel as if this is the light at the end of the tunnel," said Dr. Chris Weaver.
IU Health will vaccinate health care workers from long term care facilities first. Hospital employees who have direct contact with patients are next in line.
Community Health Network has a similar plan. They'll vaccinate frontline workers first, hopefully beginning next Thursday. They expect to administer 12,000 vaccinations by the end of the month.
