The first 975 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have arrived in Nevada County and have been distributed between Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital and Tahoe Forest Hospital in Truckee, and hospital administration says it will not be used to vaccinate administrators. President and CEO of Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, Dr. Brian Evans, says its for those workers that have the highest risk.

He says staff taking direct care of patients care and those responsible for cleaning up after patients will be the first to receive the shots.
Dr. Evans also says the vaccine will not just be given to anyone, because side effects are a concern.

Evans says Nevada County Public Health is working on the extended list of potential vaccine recipients once the hospital staff is covered. But until the vaccine is readily available he continues to stress the urgent need to follow all COVID safe protocols.

With schools letting out for the holiday break and Christmas next week, the number of COVID cases in the county could rapidly increase putting undue stress on the health care system.