AUSTIN, Texas — The first round of COVID-19 vaccines made its way to Central Texas Monday, and by Tuesday, Austin health care workers were some of the first people to receive them.
The coronavirus vaccine was given to workers at the UT Austin Dell Medical School.
One of the first people to be vaccinated was Stephanie Vasquez. She's a nurse for UT Health Austin Ambulatory Surgery Center. She told KVUE she was nervous but said she was also excited. And, unlike some, she wasn't too worried about a needle going into her arm.
"We knew we needed to do this. This is for the greater good of our community as well as the patients that we care for, so someone needed to step up and be the first to go ahead and take this opportunity to make a difference," Vasquez told KVUE.
Others who were some of the first in the line to get vaccinated include Godson Iheanacho, a UT pharmacy student; Chris Moriates, the Dell Medical School assistant dean, and Jeff Brand, an anesthesiologist and UT Austin assistant professor.
KVUE's Bryce Newberry captured photos of them as they received the dose of the Pfizer vaccine. You can look at them in the gallery below.
PHOTOS: First health care workers in Austin receive coronavirus vaccine
The team at Dell Medical School is working to vaccinate nearly 3,000 health care workers in the next 10 days. More vaccines are expected in Central Texas in the coming days. The Department of State and Health Services said more vaccines could arrive by Thursday or Friday.
The Austin Independent School District superintendent also announced Tuesday that AISD teachers and staff will receive the vaccine in phase two of the distribution.
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