Editor's Note: The information published in this story is accurate at the time of publication. Always refer to uab.edu/uabunitedfor UAB's current guidelines and recommendations relating to COVID-19.
Video: Jeff Myers and Andrea Reiber
On December 15, University of Alabama at Birmingham received 10,725 COVID-19 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. With this shipment, UAB will vaccinate 7,507 hospital personnel (both UAB and other Jefferson County hospital personnel), 1,609 clinical personnel, as well as 1,609 Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel from the seven-county region in a 40-mile radius.
Vaccinations are by appointment only and will be scheduled starting today. Recipients will be scheduled to receive the initial dose and the follow-up dose.
UAB is committed to delivering the vaccines to our employees and frontline personnel in our community in a safe, timely and strategic manner.
As of December 15, UAB is not currently offering the COVID vaccine to patients. This is because there is a limited supply of COVID-19 vaccine available, and the CDC and the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) has issued guidance that the first vaccines should go to health care teams, emergency service workers, and long-term care facilities. We are carefully monitoring this situation as it evolves and will make sure that our UAB Medicine patients are notified and are given the opportunity to receive a vaccine once the vaccine is made available to the public, consistent with CDC and ADPH guidance. Please note that it could be early spring before the vaccine is more widely available to the public. We do not have additional information on when the vaccine will be available to you but will continue to communicate as we learn new information.