Premier Andrew Furey says yesterday was a big day for the Big Land, as well as long-term care facilities that received their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The first vaccinations for Labrador were administered in the communities of Black Tickle and Norman’s Bay with more towns on the schedule throughout the week. Officials are using the Moderna vaccine in the more remote areas since it does not require the ultra-low temperatures required for the Pfizer-BioNTech.

Meanwhile, another shipment of the Pfizer vaccine arrived in Newfoundland yesterday, with weekly deliveries ramping up to 1,950 a week for Eastern Health by the end of February. More Pfizer vaccines are also headed to Central Health, Western Health, and Labrador-Grenfell Health, with each region receiving 975 doses a week.

Furey says officials are actually ahead of their goals because they were based on the assumption that vaccines wouldn’t arrive until early January, whereas the first shipments landed in mid-December.

As of Sunday, the province had administered 3,700 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.