Colorado Springs hospitals will receive nearly 6,000 doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine after the FDA granted emergency use authorization Friday night allowing for the inoculation of many local front-line health care workers within days.

Vaccines could arrive in the state as early as Sunday, state health officials said this week — but Coloradans who aren’t front-line workers or at high risk for the potentially deadly virus will likely not be able to receive the vaccine until this summer.

UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central is slated to receive 3,900 doses of Colorado’s initial allocation of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine — the largest shipment scheduled, so far, for El Paso County, according to data released Friday by the state.

Memorial’s north hospital, 4050 Briargate Parkway, isn’t getting any Pfizer vaccine in the first shipment, but will receive 800 doses of the Moderna vaccine a week or two later. Its hospital at 1400 east Boulder Street will receive 4,100 doses of the Moderna vaccine.

Penrose-St. Francis Health Services will receive 1,950 doses of Pfizer’s initial shipment, with 1,100 Moderna doses arriving shortly thereafter.

Both hospital systems said the initial shipment will be used to vaccinate their highest-risk health care workers — those who work with COVID patients and in emergency rooms, as recommended by the state. Phase 1 calls for front-line health care workers, as well as long-term care facility staff and residents, to receive the vaccine first, followed by health care workers with less direct contact with COVID patients; workers in home health, hospice and dental settings; and first responders, including paramedics, firefighters, police and corrections workers.

“As we receive additional supplies, we will also provide vaccinations for health care workers in other areas, including outpatient clinics,” said Cary Vogrin, spokeswoman for UCHealth Memorial, on Friday. “Our distribution will be based on health care workers’ proximity to patients with COVID-19, not on their employment status or job title.”

Other staff who work in COVID units might receive the vaccination at the same time as their coworkers “as supplies allow,” she added.

Penrose St. Francis’ first shipment should cover the first of two doses for the “vast majority, if not all” of the system’s medical workers at highest risk for COVID, Dr. Bill Plauth, chief medical officer of Penrose St. Francis Health Services, said Friday.

The arrival of the Moderna vaccines will allow for the vaccination of health care workers at lower risk, Plauth added.

El Paso County Public Health will not receive an allocation of Pfizer’s initial shipment, but is slated to receive 300 doses of Moderna’s vaccine. A spokeswoman said the department is looking for “the most effective ways to utilize this extremely limited amount of vaccine.”

Children’s Hospital Colorado’s Colorado Springs location will also receive doses of the vaccines, a spokeswoman said Friday, though it was not immediately known how many.

The Colorado Springs hospitals and about 150 other health care facilities around the state will use the shipments to inoculate their front-line workers and distribute the vaccine to nearby health care facilities. They were chosen by the state health department due to their ultra-low temperature freezers, ranging from -60 to -80 degrees Celsius, needed to preserver the vaccine, state officials said, and their willingness to redistribute the vaccine to other providers in their region.

The FDA could authorize the emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine Friday evening, a day earlier than anticipated, The New York Times reported.

The first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are expected to arrive in Colorado as early as Sunday, and many front-line workers should be vaccinated by the end of February, state officials said Wednesday. After FDA approval, an initial shipment of Pfizer’s vaccine — 46,800 doses, the maximum the state was allowed to order — is expected within 24 hours.

About a week later, the state is set to receive 95,600 doses of the Moderna vaccine, the maximum allowed at this time, officials added.

Colorado’s population represents 1.69% of the United States, and the state is expected to receive the same percentage of available vaccines each week, the governor’s office said Wednesday.

Both vaccines require two doses — 21 days apart for Pfizer, and 28 days for Moderna. Pfizer says its vaccine is 95% effective; Moderna reports its vaccine is nearly 95% effective. Both are more effective than the flu vaccine, according to state health officials.

Phase 1 vaccine recipients are expected to receive it by February, officials said.

Phase 2 distribution — to the elderly, those with health conditions, public-facing workers, those who work in high-density settings, other health care workers not covered in Phase 1 and adults who received a placebo during a COVID vaccine trial — are expected to get the vaccine by the spring.

The rest of the population — members of the general public ages 18-64 without high-risk conditions — are expected to be able to get the shots in the summer, officials said.

Children are not currently eligible for the vaccine, which is approved for those 18 and older.

The state is expected to release information about Phase 2 and 3 distribution at a later date. Those who believe they qualify for a Phase 1 vaccine can call a hotline at 1-877-462-2911 or visit covid19.colorado.gov/vaccine.