Next in line for vaccinations: care workers at assisted living facilities and nursing homes

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Healthcare workers across the Bay Area continue to be vaccinated with more physicians, nurses and medical staff getting their coronavirus shots every day.

Health care workers, particularly those who work in ER and Intensive Care Units are the first to get the vaccine, and all week physicians, nurses and other medical staff getting their shots.

But next in line, are people who work at assisted living facilities and nursing homes

In Santa Clara County, health officials on Thursday morning will start to administer the COVID vaccine to people who work at assisted living facilities. 

It’ll happen in the building behind the blue arch on Tully Road in San Jose. 

This follows several days of vaccinations for other health care and medical workers.

All week, we've seen scenes like this: Cheering and applause, when people roll up their sleeves for the long-awaited Pfizer vaccine.

On Wednesday, some Marin County health care workers received their vaccines for the first time.

In San Mateo County, ultra-cold freezers arrived to store the Pfizer vaccine. San Mateo County health officials will begin administering those shots to health care workers at six hospitals in that county, starting Thursday. 

A physician at John Muir Medical Center in Contra Costa County, who got his shot on Wednesday, described a sense of relief felt by many - when he got the first dose of this vaccine.

"It's an exciting moment," said Dr. Russell Rodriguez, medical director. "There's a long way to go still, but the first real hope we have we're going to get this virus under control."

The Pfizer vaccine must be stored in ultra-cold, sub-zero temperatures. 

It has to be handled carefully, it comes in tiny vials that have to be thawed and issued and can only be refrigerated for five days.

Everyone who gets a first dose gets a vaccine card and hospitals have to keep track to make sure they also get their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

Also on the way is the Moderna vaccine. The FDA is expected to give emergency approval for that coronavirus vaccine this week. 

Hospitals and public health officials expect they will start getting shipments of that vaccine as early as next week - and definitely by the end of the year.