CLEVELAND —  The Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center is among the 37 VA centers nationwide that will start vaccinating health care workers and residents as early as Wednesday.

The VA Center will receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine Tuesday and will start with frontline health care employees and veterans residing in long-term care.

"Veterans in VA’s long-term care facilities will be the first patient group to be vaccinated. As vaccine supplies increase, additional Veterans will receive vaccinations based on factors such as age, existing health problems and other considerations that increase the risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19," according to the Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs.

The sites chosen have the ability to vaccinate a large number of people and help keep the vaccines at extremely cold temperatures.

All of the doses administered will be reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevetion for data collection, and the department also plans to provide public updates on the number of people who receive the vaccine at each VA sites.

For additional information, veterans can sign up through VA’s COVID-19 Vaccine Keep Me Informed tool, visit the VA Coronavirus Vaccine FAQs webpage to stay updated. They can also contact their care team or visit their facility website. 

Other VA Centers included in the first round of vaccinations are:

  • Birmingham (AL) VA Health Care System
  • Phoenix (AZ) VA Health Care System 
  • Greater Los Angeles (CA) VA Health Care System
  • Palo Alto (CA) VA Health Care System
  • Eastern Colorado (CO) VA Health Care System
  • Connecticut (West Haven Campus) VA Health Care System
  • Washington DC VA Health Care System
  • Orlando (FL) VA Health Care System
  • Augusta (GA) VA Health Care System
  • Edward J. Hines Jr. VA Hospital (IL)
  • Lexington (KY) VA Health Care System
  • Southeast Louisiana (New Orleans) VA Health Care System
  • Maryland (Baltimore) VA Health Care System
  • Bedford (MA) VA Health Care System
  • Ann Arbor (MI) VA Health Care System
  • Minneapolis (MN) VA Health Care System
  • Harry S Truman Memorial Veterans Hospital (Columbia MO)
  • St. Louis (MO) VA Health Care System
  • Omaha (NE) VA Health Care System
  • Southern Nevada (North Las Vegas) VA Health Care System
  • Raymond G. Murphy (NM) VA Health Care System
  • New York Harbor (Brooklyn) VA Health Care System
  • Western New York (Buffalo) VA Health Care System
  • Durham (NC) VA Health Care System
  • Oklahoma City (OK) VA Health Care System
  • Portland (OR) VA Health Care System
  • Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center (Philadelphia PA)
  • Pittsburgh (PA) VA Health Care System
  • Caribbean (Puerto Rico) VA Health Care System
  • Memphis (TN) VA Health Care System
  • Dallas (TX) VA Medical Center
  • Michael E. DeBakey VA Health Care System (Houston TX)
  • Audie L. Murphy VA Hospital (San Antonio TX)
  • Richmond (VA) VA Health Care System
  • Puget Sound (WA) VA Health Care System
  • Milwaukee (WI) VA Health Care System