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EDINBURG, Texas - The first vaccines for COVID-19 have been administered to frontline healthcare workers in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

Dr. John H. Krouse, executive vice president for health affairs at UTRGV Health and dean of the UT-Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, held a virtual press conference on Tuesday to announce the news.

\\u201cIt is a very exciting time,\\u201d Krouse said. \\u201cIt is really thrilling that we are finally able to begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel, by being able to receive vaccine and now start to distribute that in an orderly approach.\\u201d

Krouse said UTRGV has only just received the vaccines, produced by Pfizer.

\\u201cWe have received our first doses here at UTRGV this morning. And we plan to start vaccinating this afternoon, our first group of people. And then, over the rest of this week, we will be doing 12-hour shifts in order to assure that we are able to get the vaccine to our frontline healthcare workers in support, here at UTRGV.\\u201d

Krouse said the vaccine will be distributed following CDC and FDA guidelines. He said these guidelines state that the first round of vaccines should be to those frontline healthcare workers who have exposure to COVID\\u201419 patients.

The attached podcast features Krouse\\u2019s remarks at the news conference, plus his answers to questions from reporters.\\xa0

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.