The COVID vaccine is here! Dell Medical School will begin administering shots on Tuesday

UT Health Austin, the clinical practice of Dell Medical School, was the first site in Central Texas to receive doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine Monday morning and will begin administering it to frontline healthcare workers on Tuesday.

UT Health Austin received 2,925 doses of the vaccine, which requires a second dose around three weeks after the first is administered. It is one of only four sites across the state to gain such early access.

UT Health San Antonio, UT's MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and Methodist Dallas Medical Center also received vaccine shipments—between 4,875 and 5,850 doses—on Monday.

Ten other facilities in Hays, Travis and Williamson counties will receive vaccine shipments later this week as part of the initial allotment, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

The Pfizer vaccine has already been administered in other parts of the country.

A critical care nurse in New York was among the first in the U.S. to receive the initial dose of the two-part vaccine.

"I want to instill public confidence that the vaccine is safe," said Sandra Lindsay, who is the director of critical care at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens.

The vaccine was also administered to frontline healthcare workers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, GW Hospital in Washington D.C. and Ohio State University's Wexner Center in Columbus.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Monday that 20 million Americans should be able to get the first dose of the COVID vaccine by the end of December.

This is contingent on the approval of an emergency use authorization for Moderna's COVID vaccine, which will be reviewed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday.