The Centers for Disease Control has issued what it calls an interim Playbook on how to set up an immunization program once an effective and safe vaccine for COVID-19 is available.

On Wednesday in a hearing before Congress, Dr. Robert Redfield, head of the CDC, says although there may be some doses of vaccine available before the end of this year, a vaccine will likely not be available in sufficient quantities to immunize everybody in the country until the second or third quarters of 2021.

Right now, there are at least six vaccine candidates in Phase Three clinical trials, with an eye towards getting a vaccine that may help control the COVID-19 pandemic.  When a vaccine or vaccines are first available, it will take a while to get enough of the vaccines made.  So, Dr. Redfield and the CDC team are providing guidelines to help local Health Departments, hospitals, and health care facilities determine how they will manage vaccine procurement, storage (some need to be stored with dry ice), and distribution.  Several of the vaccines will require two doses, either 21  or 28 days apart.

The goal of the U.S. government is to have enough COVID-19 vaccine for all people in the United States who wish to be vaccinated. Early in the COVID-19 Vaccination Program, there maybe a limited supply of COVID-19 vaccine, and vaccination efforts may focus on those critical to the response, providing direct care, and maintaining societal function, as well as those at highest risk for developing severe illness from COVID-19.

The 57-page document is being distributed to all the American states, the  US-affiliated Pacific Islands [USAPI] of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau, and local public health programs and their partners on how to plan and execute a vaccination response to COVID-19 within their jurisdictions.

In Hawaii, Lt. Gov. Dr. Josh Green has been assigned to work on the state’s plan for getting vaccinations to all who want them, once a vaccine is available.  Although CDC Director Robert Redfield it’s possible to have some supplies of the vaccine by the end of 2020, he expects a vaccine to be widely available to the public by the second or third quarters of 2021.

Click here for the CDC’s Interim Playbook.