Shipments of the newly approved novel coronavirus vaccine developed by Moderna arrived at Corridor hospitals on Tuesday.
Moderna’s vaccine, which received federal emergency use authorization late last week, arrives in Eastern Iowa just one week after the first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were shipped nationwide.
The new batch is the first vaccine shipment for many hospitals statewide, including Mercy Hospital in Iowa City, making this week’s arrival a “monumental moment” in the pandemic for these facilities, said hospital spokesman Aaron Scheinblum. Two hundred doses arrived at Mercy Iowa City on Tuesday.
University of Iowa Health Care Chief Pharmacy Officer Mike Brownlee confirmed his campus received 1,500 doses of the Moderna vaccine and would finish using its current allotment of the version developed by Pfizer-BioNTech before tapping the new shipment.