Singh: Arrival of COVID-19 vaccine is an historic day

EDINBURG, Texas - Dr. Manish Singh, MD, chief executive officer of DHR Health, says Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020, will go down in history in the Rio Grande Valley.It was the day his hospital started inoculating frontline healthcare workers against COVID-19 with the new vaccine produced by Pfizer.“This is an historic moment we all are witnessing. Fifteen or 20 years from now we will all look back and we will remember this day as the day it all started to end, the end of this nightmare,” Singh told the Rio Grande Guardian.“Today is the day that it started. It may take weeks, it may take months, but it has started.”As well as historic, the day was emotional, Singh said, during a press availability at the Edinburg Conference Center at Renaissance. Reporters had been invited to witness the vaccine shots being administered to doctors, nurses, and others in the healthcare arena that are treating coronavirus patients. "Myself being a physician, an administrator and a COVID patient, this is a very, very, emotional moment. Not just for myself, not just for DHR, but the community we serve down here,” Singh said.DHR Health has been sent 5,200 doses of the vaccine, Singh said, with more on the way. “We got 5,200 vaccines. We have the capacity to store more than 25,000 doses of the vaccine. Once we use this current batch of the vaccine, they will provide another 5,000-plus. I hope within this next week or two we will have around 12,000 doses of the vaccine available,” Singh said. Singh acknowledged that as per CDC and FDA guidelines, frontline healthcare workers will be the first to the vaccine. After that, he said, it will be other workers at DHR. Editor's Note: To read the full story, go to www.riograndeguardian.com.Go to www.riograndeguardian.com to read the latest border news stories and watch the latest news videos.