Cedars-Sinai received the first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine for health care workers on Dec. 15. (photo courtesy of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center)

After the Food and Drug Administration approved the first vaccine for COVID-19 on Dec. 11, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center received the first vaccines for frontline health care workers on Tuesday.

“The arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine signifies a powerful and positive shift change for our community after months of fear, exhaustion and illness,” said Dr. Jeff Smith, chief operating officer of Cedars-Sinai. “Until [now], the vaccine was the missing tool in our ever-growing toolkit of treatments and prevention methods against the virus.”

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center became one of the first local hospitals to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The medical center has capacity to store more than 450,000 doses of the vaccine onsite in ultra-cold freezers. The vaccine is required to be stored at minus-80 degrees Celsius.

Health care workers in Cedars-Sinai’s intensive care units and emergency department will be among the first to be offered vaccinations, which are voluntary.

“Throughout the pandemic, our utmost priority has been the safety of our patients and frontline employees,” Smith said. “We are thrilled to now offer our health care heroes a voluntary vaccine, which has shown to be 95% effective thus far.”

The California and Los Angeles County departments of public health will decide when the vaccine will be offered to the general public and how to prioritize groups to receive inoculations. Vaccine recipients will receive two doses, 21 days apart.

The vaccine is intended to supplement other preventive measures such as wearing face masks, physically distancing, frequent handwashing and avoiding large gatherings.

“When deciding whether or not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, we encourage people to rely on the latest scientific data,” said Richard V. Riggs, senior vice president of medical affairs and chief medical officer at Cedars-Sinai. “At present, the data, which has been reviewed by the nation’s leading health care regulators and other experts, favor the vaccine as a safe and powerful way to stop the spread of COVID-19.”

Riggs said that when enough people in a population are vaccinated, the large numbers help protect the community, creating herd immunity.

“These are extraordinary times,” Riggs added. “We remain in an unprecedented national public health emergency that has required unprecedented responses to ensure the safety of our community. This vaccine, along with other preventive measures like social distancing, mask wearing and proper hand hygiene, will help bring us back to a more normal way of life.”

For information, visit cedars-sinai.org.