SD DOH says healthcare workers in Rapid City and Sioux Falls to be first to receive COVID-19 vaccine

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) - There is some hope on the horizon with the FDA meeting Thursday on the new Pfizer vaccine.

The state health department says South Dakota’s initial allocation of the Pfizer vaccine is 7,800 doses, with the first batch going to frontline healthcare workers in Rapid City and Sioux Falls.

The big challenge with the Pfizer vaccine is that it must be kept at a freezing temperature.

”Upon arriving in South Dakota, we do have adequate ultra-cold storage facilities to maintain that ultra-cold storage temperature. When we are looking to deploy that particular vaccine to areas where there is not that ultra-cold storage available. we are looking at the dry ice option to maintain its viability,” Secretary of Health Kim Malsam-Rysdon said.

Malsam-Rysdon says they’ve been in discussions with the Civil Air Patrol to help transport some of that vaccine around the state.