Santa Clara County has received its first 5,850 doses of the Covid vaccine.

This delivery is the first of the initial 17,550 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine allocated to the county by the state—230 of which will go to San Benito County per the state’s direction. The remaining doses in the allocation will ship from the manufacturer directly to hospitals around the county and are expected to arrive later this week.

These early doses will be for people in the highest risk categories, as set by the state and federal government. This includes front line healthcare workers at acute care hospitals, as well as residents and staff at skilled nursing facilities.

Today at 10 AM, Join us as Dr. Fenstersheib discusses our current COVID-19 status, shares details about the first vaccine doses that have arrived to our county, holiday travel, and learn about the new quarantine guidance: https://t.co/PAfHcZKOGG. pic.twitter.com/e8jmGWqYV7

— Santa Clara County (@SCCgov) December 16, 2020

“Although the arrival of a small number of vaccines across the state and the county brings much hope, we remain in the most dangerous phase of the pandemic, with Covid-19 spreading rapidly throughout the county, the state and across the country,” county officials stated in a press release. “It is critical that all county residents continue to wear masks, not gather with others, continue to socially distance from anyone outside their household, and stay home as much as possible.”

Distribution of the vaccine will follow the requirements from the federal and state governments, which set the sequence for groups to receive the vaccine.

The county expects to soon receive additional information from the state about future vaccine allocation, distributions, requirements and timelines.