Sanford Health receives and distributes first round of COVID-19 vaccinations

Front line healthcare workers first in line to receive Pfizer vaccinations

FARGO, N.D. — The first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have made it to hospitals in North Dakota.

“I feel great. I feel thankful. Great and thankful,” Sanford Health Infectious Disease Physician, Dr. Avish Nagpal said.

Dr. Avish Nagpal is feeling a rush of emotions after being the first person to receive a dosage of the Pfizer vaccine in the North Dakota.

“So, it’s very humbling when Sanford asked me to do it. I’m happy to do it and I’m very thankful and grateful to all of our healthcare workers and all our scientific community who have put in so much hard work this is a historic moment in medicine,” Nagpal said.

Sanford Health, reaching a milestone as they receive 3,400 vaccines and begin to administer the doses to frontline workers.

“It was exciting when they actually arrived. We were very pleased that we can offer this for our clinicians and staff and it’s just the first step in getting the community and people in this country vaccinated,”

Even with the vaccines, Sanford Health officials state precautionary guidelines should still be taken.

“As far as efficacy of vaccines, so far about 94 to 95 percent effective it’s still important that you wear a mask afterwards and were reiterating that our policy won’t change until it’s widely recommended by the CDC that masking is no longer necessary I think it’s still very important to wear a mask, do the social distancing until we have much more of our population vaccinated.”

Healthcare workers who received their first round of Pfizer will have to wait 21 days for the second dosage.

“We make sure they schedule or know how to schedule their second one or they can self schedule through our MyChart App but it’s very important that people receive both doses because you don’t have full immunity until you’ve received both doses.”

After taking the vaccination, Dr. Nagpal says not to worry if you experience minor side effects.

“If I have a little bit of fever after the vaccine that’s actually a good thing. It’s proof that the immune system is recognizing the antigen, and mounting an immune response,” Nagpal said.