Guam could see vaccines soon

When will the vaccine arrive? How many will Guam get? How will we store it and who get's it first? Public Health PIO, Janela Carrera provided KUAM News with an update on where we are with the coronavirus vaccine.

"Initially we were anticipating that it would be an initial shipment of 2,000 doses; that changed to 4,000. Now what we're hearing is that it would be a shipment of 7,500 doses," she stated.

It's been almost a whole year living in the COVID-19 world and since the first positive COVID case, and we've all been asking one question, when will we be getting a vaccine? According to Carrera, we could be seeing vaccines soon. "We are anticipating that the Pfizer vaccine would arrive at the end of December - mid- to end of December," she added.

"About maybe a few weeks after the Pfizer vaccine arrives is when we anticipate the Moderna, the Vaccine B, to arrive."

While Moderna's vaccine can be stored for up to six months at around -4 degrees Fahrenheit, Pfizer's Ultra-Cold Vaccine needs temperatures of -94 degrees fahrenheit, requiring the use of a specialized freezer.

While GMH may not have procured the freezers just yet, Carrera say's GovGuam does, but the question is, do they work?

"As we understand, we do have the freezer that's required but we just want to make sure that we have all of the parts and that the freezer is capable and working, so that's something that we are working on, but we did put in a request for the type of freezer that's required for the Pfizer Vaccine and we put in a request through FEMA, so we're still waiting to hear word on that," said Carrera.

According to Carrera, there are a total of three Ultra-Cold freezers currently stored at Guam EPA and with just 3 freezers currently and a bulk shipment of 7,500 doses of the vaccine arriving in a few weeks, Carrera says Public Health is hopeful they have the means to store the vaccine.

"FEMA has been a really great partner, CDC has been a really great partner. And all of our requests are being met," she said.

Now, when it comes to the distribution, Carrera says that there's a committee being formed to put a plan in place on how they will distribute the vaccine, after the first round goes to first responders and healthcare workers.

"The method of distribution, that's all still being discussed and that's also the reason why it's important for us to formulate the Vaccination Committee, cause once that's formulated it would be at that level that the vaccination committee would have that discussion, create those specific plans and the logistical aspect and the method of distribution. And, they would be the ones who would really sort of, formalize those types of distribution plans," she said.

The committee will most likely be composed of members of the healthcare community, healthcare licensing boards, the office of the Governor and the department of public health to name a few. Now, it's just a matter of how all the pieces of the puzzle will line up - When we'll get the vaccine? How will we store it? And how will we distribute it?