A healthcare provider wearing gloves vaccinates an older woman

Nursing home residents and workers may be just days away from getting the initial doses of the first COVID-19 vaccine, after a federal advisory panel approved its emergency use Thursday. 

The Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory panel on Thursday recommended that the agency grant an emergency use authorization to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Seventeen members of the panel voted in favor, four members voted no, and one member abstained. Data released by the drugmakers in mid-November found the vaccine vaccine to be 94% effective in adults over the age of 65 and 95% effective in patients overall.

The United Kingdom authorized Pfizer-BioNTech’s candidate for immediate emergency use last week.

FDA officials have said its decision on the EUA could follow within days of the panel’s approval, and will likely align with the panel’s recommendation, according to multiple national media reports.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has previously said that the federal government will begin distributing the vaccine just days after the meeting “if all goes well.” The Trump administration in mid-October announced a vaccine distribution program, in partnership with CVS Health and Walgreens, that would administer the doses free of charge to long-term care facilities once ready. 

Last week, a Centers for Disease Prevention immunization advisory panel overwhelmingly affirmed that long-term care residents and healthcare workers should be given first access to coronavirus vaccines once authorized. While states are not required to follow the recommendation, most have also pledged that the initial doses of the coronavirus vaccine would go to long-term care facilities first.

A vaccine developed by Moderna has also applied by emergency use approval. That meeting is set for Dec. 17.