The first doses of the coronavirus vaccine in the state and St. Louis region were administered to hospital workers Monday in South County, giving frontline health-care workers hope as patients from the COVID-19 pandemic overwhelm local hospitals.
The first five health-care workers to get the vaccine in St. Louis were from Mercy Hospital South, with reporters watching as they received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that was partially produced in St. Louis. It is the first of three vaccines expected to receive approval internationally and by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Along with a group of health-care workers in Kansas City, the Mercy staffers were the first in Missouri to receive the vaccine.