On Dec. 14, 2020, the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that the New Orleans and Bedford, Massachusetts VA Medical Centers were the first two department facilities to begin administration of COVID-19 vaccinations to frontline health care employees and Veterans residing in long-term care Community Living and Spinal Cord Injury and Disorder centers.

Both facilities were part of the initial group of 37 VA medical centers across the country that began receiving and administering the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine this week.