Gov. Edwards receives first dose of coronavirus vaccine at Pennington Biomedical Research Center

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards received his first dose of the Pfizer-manufactured COVID-19 vaccine immediately following a news conference on the state’s response to the coronavirus on Tuesday, Feb. 9.

The governor spoke from LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, which will serve as first mass vaccination site in Louisiana’s capital city for the COVID-19 vaccine. Officials announced healthcare personnel from Our Lady of the Lake (OLOL) will begin administering doses of the vaccine at Pennington Biomedical Research Center.

The facility has the capacity for more than 7,500 doses of the vaccine to be administered by OLOL, once the state has enough supply of the vaccine available to do so.

Gov. Edwards also announced Louisiana will remain in the “modified” version of Phase 2 of reopening the economy for the next 21 days. The governor’s said his decision to keep the state in Phase 2 was based on the fact all 64 parishes in the state remain above 10% positivity, the emerging threat of variants of the virus, and the fact that the upcoming Mardi Gras holiday was a superspreader event for the virus in 2020.

Members of the governor’s Unified Command Group, including Sec. of State Kyle Ardoin, also receive their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine after the news conference.

This is a developing news story. WAFB’s Matt Houston will have more on this story on 9News at 4, 5, and 6.