Southern Nevada Health District receives Moderna COVID vaccine

The Southern Nevada Health District on Tuesday received its first shipment of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine — the second drug designed to prevent the disease caused by the coronavirus to win emergency authorization from the federal government.

The initial shipment of 15,478 doses of the vaccine manufactured by Moderna will be used by the health district to vaccinate front-line health care workers, according to a statement from the agency. It comes on the heels of the 27,675 doses of the Pfizer vaccine the district already has received.

Clark County hospitals also will receive shipments of 15,478 Moderna doses over the coming week, the statement said.

“The two vaccines are important tools in our efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic,” Dr. Fermin Leguen, the district’s acting chief health officer, was quoted as saying. “I want to remind everyone that it is important to get our community’s health care staff members vaccinated so they can continue to provide the essential services and support we have all relied upon during this pandemic.”

The first dose of the Pfizer vaccine was given in Nevada on Dec. 14 to staff at University Medical Center in Las Vegas. As of Tuesday, the hospital has administered 2,000 doses to its staff, or about half of its employees, UMC said in a statement.

The hospital is expected to receive its first shipment of the Moderna vaccine in the “near future,” and will begin administering second doses of the Pfizer vaccine starting Jan. 4, the statement said.

The Moderna vaccine is the second to be approved for by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a regional advisory group —the Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup. All concluded that the vaccine is safe and effective.

Both vaccines are administered in two doses, with a second shot required three to four weeks after the first.

The health district is administering the vaccines via a tier system, with health care workers, long-term care facilities and “additional groups most at risk for direct exposure” first in line.

A CDC panel of experts on Sunday recommended that people 75 and older and essential workers like firefighters, teachers and grocery store workers should be next in line for inoculation.

In Nevada, people 65 and older are currently included in tier three. But those 75 and up would be moved up to tier two if the state adopts the CDC panel’s recommendation.

It was not clear Tuesday when or if that would happen. The state Health and Human Services Department and the office of Gov. Steve Sisolak did not respond to requests from the Review-Journal for clarification.

Vaccinations could move into the tier two phase by the end of January, JoAnn Rupiper, the health district’s director of clinical services, said at a virtual news briefing on Tuesday.

The general public, who make up tier four, will likely not start receiving the vaccine until at least April. But it’s unclear how long it will take to work through each tier, Rupiper said.

“We’re very optimistic with our vaccine allocation this week, and we’re ready to order possibly more today,” she said. “We’ll just have to take it each week and month at a time.”

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Bill Dentzer contributed to this report.