Stanislaus County will be getting the initial allotment of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines within days and will start administering it to frontline healthcare workers soon.

The county's first shipment will be 3,900 doses of the vaccination and is going to be given to frontline healthcare workers in the county, said Stanislaus County Health Services Agency spokesperson Kamlesh Kaur. The vaccine requires two shots for the highest level of protection, so the first shipment will not be enough to vaccinate all frontline healthcare workers, Kaur said.

The state received the first 33,000 doses from Pfizer on Monday. About 300,000 more doses are scheduled to be distributed this week and nearly 400,000 additional doses are expected next week, according to the Associated Press. Subsequent doses will also be set aside for healthcare workers, as well as residents and workers at long-term care and skilled-nursing facilities, who can expect to receive doses of the vaccine through local pharmacies.

Essential workers as well as those with medical conditions that leave them vulnerable to severe cases of the virus, will be among the next groups prioritized for vaccination, said Dr. Erica Pan, the acting state public health officer. The general public can expect to be vaccinated in the spring and summer.

SCHSA is using two ultracold freezers borrowed from Stanislaus State to store the vaccine in.

The vaccines arrival comes as Stanislaus County is seeing a surge of COVID-19 cases. The county has recorded 27,798 cases, of which 2,794 are presumed active. Deaths in the county have reached 483. The number of available ICU beds is at four, according to SCHSA.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.