Submitted photo Kathy Thompson, Quality & Risk manager, Reid Horning, Pharmacy manager, and Charlie Sieberg, Pharmacy coordinator, accepted the shipment of NUMC’s first COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday and stored the vaccine in the sub-zero freezer at the New Ulm Medical Center.

NEW ULM — New Ulm Medical Center (NUMC) received its first shipment of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday.

The shipment was stored in the medical center’s sub-zero freezer. NUMC is a regional hub for the vaccine, storing it at the recommended -70 degrees Celsius for several regional medical facilities.

NUMC will begin vaccinating health care workers Tuesday, Dec. 22. Fifty individuals are scheduled to be administered the vaccine on this first day with more to follow.

The Pfizer vaccine is a two-part vaccination. All those vaccinated will need a follow-up dose of the vaccine will be administered three weeks after the first.

This first shipment received by NUMC contains over 200 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Further shipments are expected every week, but the number of doses in future shipments is unknown.

The first people to receive the vaccine will be frontline health care workers. The state has prioritized the first round of vaccines for these at-risk health care workers.

The vaccine is not available for the general public at this time. As more becomes available the Minnesota Department of Health will share information on when the public can receive the vaccination.