The first group of Alice Center nursing home residents who agree to be vaccinated are expected to receive vaccinations against COVID-19 as early as next week.

The first group of residents will receive their shots on Dec. 21, Alice Hyde Medical Center spokesman Phillip Rau confirmed Monday. Alice Hyde, which is part of the University of Vermont health network, oversees the Alice Center.

Because the new Pfizer coronavirus vaccine is delivered in two shots, it will take a few weeks before the vaccines are distributed to willing residents and staff. Vaccinations at the nursing home are expected to be complete around Feb. 1, 2021, according to Rau.

The vaccines for Alice Center residents and staff are expected to be distributed by Walgreens. Asked where else in Essex and Franklin counties the company would be distributing vaccines, a spokeswoman for Walgreens, Emily Delnicki, said on Monday that the company was unable to provide location-specific information about vaccine distribution at that time.

“Walgreens is working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the (Trump) Administration in support of Operation Warp Speed to help administer COVID-19 vaccines, once available, to high priority groups, including long-term care facility residents and staff and healthcare workers,” Delnicki said. “We will be collaborating with approximately 35,000 long-term care facilities across the nation that have selected Walgreens as their vaccine provider.”

It’s wasn’t clear on Monday when health care workers at Alice Hyde Medical Center would be able to receive vaccinations, and where those vaccines would be distributed from. The hospital has applied to be a vaccine distribution center but had not yet received approval as of Monday.

It also wasn’t clear Monday when staff at Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake, and when staff and residents at Mercy Living Center in Tupper Lake, would be able to get vaccinated. Adirondack Medical Center has also applied to be a vaccine distribution center but has not yet received approval.

The Pfizer vaccine has to be stored in freezers at extremely low temperatures. Both hospitals have the capacity to store the vaccines.

Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh, which is also part of the University of Vermont health network and shares a president with Alice Hyde, is expected to receive its first batch of vaccines sometime this week, according to Chris Blake, senior marketing and communications specialist at CVPH.

Administrators of the Elderwood of Uihlein at Lake Placid nursing home and the Saranac Village at Will Rogers independent living facility were not immediately available for comment Monday evening.

Pfizer and BioNTech said that its late-stage trial showed its vaccine to be 95% effective after the second dose is administered. The vaccine has no serious side effects and an ability to prevent severe COVID-19 in older people, the New York Times reported.

That doesn’t mean there were no side effects, however. The trial did show that many participants experienced mild side effects, such as aches, chills, fatigue and fevers, according to the Times.

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Priority

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Under the state’s current vaccine distribution plan, the first people to be eligible for a vaccine will be essential health care workers and high-risk nursing home residents in areas where there’s a high number of cases. The next will be health care workers and nursing home residents in areas with relatively low numbers of cases.

Next to be vaccinated will be first responders; teachers, school staff and child care providers; public health workers; high-risk people and essential front line workers who have regular contact with the public.

Then vaccinations will open up to everyone over the age of 65 and those under the age of 65 with underlying conditions, then all other essential workers, then the general population, according to the state’s COVID vaccination program book.

A new milestone was reached on Monday when an intensive care nurse from Queens, Sandra Lindsay, became the first New Yorker to receive the new Pfizer coronavirus vaccine.

In a year when the coronavirus pandemic has taken the lives of more than 35,000 New Yorkers, and mass-closures mandated in an effort to curb the spread of the virus have delivered a devastating blow to this state’s economy, this first vaccination signaled a turning point in the ongoing fight against COVID-19.

“The first doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine arrived throughout the state today, and a health care provider based in New York City was the first to get vaccinated this morning,” state Department of Health spokeswoman Jill Montag said Monday, when asked how the vaccine would be distributed in the North Country and which hospitals would receive vaccines here. “By the end of this week, the Pfizer vaccine will have arrived at a total of 90 hospitals statewide. Arrival times will vary. We are in contact with facilities across the state to create an efficient schedule for vaccinations to occur as safely and quickly as possible.”

There are 215 hospitals statewide.

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By the numbers

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Franklin County Public Health reported 18 new positive cases of COVID-19 on Monday, plus 12 residents recently deemed recovered, bringing the total number of active cases countywide to 154. Of those active cases, 43 are associated with the Barehill Correctional Facility.

A total of 665 Franklin County residents were either in isolation or quarantine as of Monday.

In Essex County, 25 new cases of COVID-19 were discovered between Friday and Monday — including nine prison inmates at FCI Ray Brook — bringing the countywide total active cases to 60. At least 20 people were recently deemed recovered by the county health department.

The FCI Ray Brook inmates who tested positive over the weekend are all transfers from other facilities and have been separated from the general population, with limited staff contact since arrival, according to the Essex County Health Department.

Combined, Essex and Franklin counties have seen a total of 1,023 test-confirmed and suspected cases of COVID-19 since March. Of those, at least 698 people have been deemed recovered by their respective county health department, though some people have reported experiencing long-term effects and lingering symptoms.

As of Sunday, there were 52 people in the North Country region hospitalized with COVID-19, about 0.01% of the region’s population, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office. Of those, 32 were in intensive care.

Of the 159,844 COVID-19 tests administered statewide on Sunday, 5.66%, or 9,044, were positive, according to Gov. Cuomo’s office. Eighty-three New Yorkers died on Sunday after contracting COVID-19.