PENDLETON — Umatilla County hospitals have received 1,400 doses of the coronavirus vaccine and are planning to begin immunizations on Monday, Dec. 28, according to county health officials.

The county’s two largest hospitals, St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton and Good Shepherd Medical Center in Hermiston, have each received 700 doses of the Moderna vaccine, according to county health officials, as vaccinations in several other counties statewide are already underway.

Caitlin Cozad, the marketing and communications director for Good Shepherd, said in an email to the East Oregonian that the hospital had received its share of the vaccines and plans to begin inoculating health care workers and first responders on Dec. 28.

Nursing home residents and staff will also be among the first to receive the vaccine, according to Cozad.

“Vaccination gives us hope that the pandemic will end,” Cozad said in the email, “but in the meantime, we need to continue safety measures to keep the virus from spreading: wear a mask, physically distance from others, wash your hands, avoid gatherings and stay home when you’re sick.”

St. Anthony received its vaccine shipment on Wednesday, Dec. 23, and plans to begin immunizations at 10 a.m. on Dec. 28. Emily Smith, the director of communications for the hospital, said they will be following the guidelines laid out by Oregon Health Authority regarding who is vaccinated first, and emphasized that vaccinations will likely not be available to the general public for a few months.

The doses come after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the Moderna vaccine for emergency use on Friday, Dec. 18., adding millions of doses to the supply that has been shipped across the U.S. over the past week.

The Moderna vaccine comes second to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which was brought to health authorities across the country a week ago. Each vaccine requires two doses, and clinical trials of tens of thousands of people showed the vaccines to be nearly 95% effective.

A major difference between the two, however, has to do with storage. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine must be stored in a deep freeze of minus 70 degrees Celsius, while the Moderna vaccine only requires a storage of minus 20 degrees Celsius, which is about the temperature of an ordinary freezer.

Immunizations for health care workers, tribal elders and first responders from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation began at Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center on Dec. 18. The tribe received 300 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from the Indian Health Service on Thursday, Dec. 17.

By the end of the day on Sunday, Dec. 20, the health center had successfully distributed all 300 doses, according to the health center’s public information officer. The clinic received its second shipment of doses this week and is storing them in the facility’s deep freezer until those who have already been vaccinated return to receive their final scheduled immunization in three weeks.

“We’re really proud to be offering this to our community and though it’s a step, hopefully, towards normalcy again, people need to remain diligent and keep wearing their masks, even after they receive the vaccine,” Yellowhawk officials said in an email.

Though case counts in Umatilla County have been on a slight decline since November, county health officials reported 40 new cases per day between Dec. 13-19 and 283 total cases, which is 60 more than the previous week’s total.