Billings Clinic receives first COVID-19 vaccine shipment

Billings Clinic received its first shipment of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday.

Hospital officials said in a press release the first vaccines will be administered Tuesday to a team of five people who will represent every member of the Billings Clinic health system and first responders who have been at the forefront of caring for our rural and urban Montana and Wyoming communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The team members receiving the first vaccinations will be a respiratory therapist, paramedic, environmental services staff member, nurse, and a physician.

The CDC required that the first allocations of COVID-19 vaccines go to health care workers and those in long-term care facilities.

Billings Clinic has been planning the vaccination effort for weeks and with the first shipment of 975 doses and will be ready to go after the final preparations and educational steps are complete.

The first vaccines will be distributed to frontline health care staff and members of the Billings Fire Department.