Franciscan Health, a chain of hospitals serving Indiana and part of Illinois, has joined a handful of Catholic health institutions planning to help distribute COVID-19 vaccines.

Franciscan Health, which operates 12 hospitals in Indiana, announced today that it has received initial supplies of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and will begin the inoculation of frontline healthcare workers today, Chesterton Tribune reported Friday.

Franciscan Health joins Catholic Health in Western New York, and Catholic Health Services of the Archdiocese of Miami in distributing the vaccine in the U.S.

“This is a monumental moment for the healthcare industry,” said Dean Mazzoni, president and CEO of Franciscan Health Michigan City. “Protecting the people who have been on the frontlines is giving them one more tool to successfully wage this war with a renewed peace of mind that they are protected.”

More than 200 people are registered to receive the vaccine on Friday, the first day of vaccinations. Franciscan Health Indianapolis said they expect to vaccinate three people every 10 minutes. The people who get vaccinated will receive a second shot 21 days after the initial dose, according to WTHR 13.

Franciscan Health Indianapolis received 975 initial doses of the Pfizer vaccine on Thursday, Dec. 17 and expects to receive about 3,000 doses of the vaccine over the next two weeks.

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