The Austin area will get 13,650 initial doses of the Pfizer vaccine when it's approved by the federal government, Austin Public Health announced Friday evening.
The initial shipment will go to a handful of hospitals in Travis, Williamson and Hays counties so health care providers can be vaccinated first.
"We are excited for our hospital systems partners to begin vaccinating our front-line hospital workers against this virus," interim Austin-Travis County Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott said in an emailed statement. "By protecting our healthcare system personnel we can ensure that we are able to meet the needs of COVID and non-COVID patients in our community. We are looking forward to vaccine shipments continuing in the weeks and months to come so that, in future phases, we can offer vaccines to those at high risk for severe disease as we progress down the path of community-wide vaccination."
The shipments are dictated by the Texas Department of State Health Services and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 150 health care providers have signed up to distribute the vaccine when it becomes more widely available.
