The second batch of doses may arrive on Dec. 14, she added.
Because of the small amount of doses that the CNMI will receive, the first allocation will go toward healthcare among other personnel who are at the forefront of the islands’ Covid-19 response, Muna said.
“We are basically going to be doing a ‘milk run’…. We [expect to] get the first chunk of vaccines…around January [2021],” she added.
The next dose for the general population is expected to arrive in the CNMI in February.
Muna reiterated that the doses arriving this month are for the healthcare and other frontline personnel while the doses arriving in January are for the general population.
She said community members who are at a higher risk of having complications with the virus will be prioritized.
“As soon as we do the mass vaccination, we will be able to get more allocations,” Muna added.
The Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer has shown to be more than 90% effective, and so this will be the vaccine that the CNMI will be receiving.
In order to be effective, these first doses of vaccines are required to be stored in ultracold temperatures and must be used within 10 days after they have been released by the manufacturer.
This would prove to be very difficult with a mass vaccination program, Muna said.
“But there was also news this weekend about antibodies…that have gotten [Emergency Use Authorization]-approved,” she added.
The CNMI will receive an allocation of these antibodies as well.
As of Monday, the CNMI had recorded 100 confirmed Covid-19 cases since March, two deaths, eight persons in isolation, and 93 persons released from isolation per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and medical guidelines.
CHCC said 74 of these 100 cases were identified by travel screening and testing upon arrival: 36 originated from the U.S. mainland, 27 from a U.S. territory, and 11 from a foreign country.
Twenty-six of the total confirmed cases were identified by community screening: 10 through community-based testing or at CHCC, and 17 through contact tracing.
