WORCESTER, MASS. (WHDH) - UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester is getting ready to roll out thousands of doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

With delivery day just hours away, preparations are underway to accommodate nearly 2,000 doses of the vaccine which are expected to arrive Tuesday morning.

RELATED: Boston Medical Center receives its first coronavirus vaccine shipment

“The team is gearing up for distributing those 2,000 doses across the healthcare system to those COVID facing healthcare workers and this is incredibly exciting for them and for me,” President of the UMass Memorial Medical Group Dr. Eric W. Dickson said.

Healthcare workers receiving the vaccine will be taken through a step by step process beginning with educational materials about the treatment.

Then they will be vaccinated.

After that, they will be asked to wait for about 15 minutes so they can be monitored for any possible side effects.

“We do not anticipate many side effects at all,” Project Manager Manuela Weissman said. “However, we are certainly well equipped to be able to manage those problems should they arise.”

Shots made by Pfizer Inc. and its German partner BioNTech are the first authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration — beginning what will become the largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history.

Several other countries also have OK’d the vaccine, including the U.K., which started vaccinating last week.

Healthcare workers on COVID-19 units, in the field hospital and emergency rooms, will get access to the vaccine first.

“And then we’ll start to get into like, the testing areas, EMS will receive it very early — the folks that are working in the back of the ambulances are at particularly high risk and we want to get them vaccinated as early as possible,” Dickson said.

The second phase of vaccinations is expected to occur between February and April, with vaccinations being offered to people who are high risk for COVID-19 complications, adults over the age of 65, and those working in early education, K-12, transit, grocery, utility, food and agriculture, sanitation, public works, and public health.

The vaccine will be available to the general public during phase three, which is projected to begin in April.

The plan at UMass Memorial is to take care of the 8,000 clinical worker with their 2,000 shots a week allotment before moving on to administering them to their most at need patients.

(Copyright (c) 2024 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Join our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox