After receiving 975 doses of the Pfizer vaccine on Monday, Southwell received an additional 200 doses of the Moderna vaccine on Wednesday afternoon.
Alex Le, Chief Operating Officer for Southwell, said they expect more of the Moderna vaccine to come later as well.
“We’re very excited to receive these additional doses today, as it will allow us to vaccinate more of our staff over the coming weeks,” said Le. “We look forward to receiving more doses in the future.”
While the Moderna vaccine does still require two shots, similar to the Pfizer vaccine, it does not have to be stored at such low temperatures as the Pfizer vaccine does.
“Some staff members have requested the Moderna vaccine because it does not have such low temperature requirements, but both vaccines are similar in efficacy,” said Le. “Pfizer has a 95% efficacy rate and Moderna has a 94.5% efficacy rate.”
While the first doses of both vaccines are designated for Southwell employees, the health system has applied to be a community distribution center once there are more vaccines available.
“We hope to know more about the status of that soon,” said Alex Le, Chief Operating Officer. “We have been able to secure vaccines for our residents at Southwell Health & Rehabilitation in Adel, who are considered high risk, through coordination between state agencies, but we hope to be able to distribute the vaccine to others in the future. Once we know more about the status of that application, we will work to communicate that information out to community members, and we encourage community members to take the vaccine as it becomes available.”
Community members should direct any questions about the vaccine to their primary care provider, or visit https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/.
