Parry Teasdale is reporting for The Columbia Paper Jack Mabb, director of the Columbia County Department of Health, said this week the county has been told to begin preparations for administering a COVID-19 vaccine under Tier 1 of the planned roll-out. Tier 1 vaccine doses will be administered to healthcare workers and other essential personnel, among others. Senior citizens in nursing homes will receive their Tier 1 vaccine doses from CVS and Walgreens pharmacies, Mabb said. Nursing students from Columbia-Greene Community College have been enlisted in the effort. The vaccines likely to be distributed first are one made by Pfizer and BioNTech, and a different vaccine by Moderna. Both must be shipped and stored at extremely low temperatures; they lose their effectiveness after three days in conventional refrigeration. Both vaccines require two injections with two weeks in between. Mabb said there has been a spike in new cases, which he and other public health officials believe is an indicator of a surge in the illness from travel and lack of precautions during the Thanksgiving holiday. And, he said, as winter weather has begun to arrive, “people are getting sicker.” Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.