BATON ROUGE - The Louisiana Department of Health has laid out its plan to distribute a coronavirus vaccine in a phased approach once it becomes available. 

The first group to get the vaccination will be first responders and health care workers, those who are deemed "high risk" for contracting the virus. If the vaccine is fast-tracked and approved for emergency administration by the FDA, this could happen as soon as by the end of this year. 

“It’s very possible that through an emergency act that the most vulnerable people, first responders, may be authorized to immunize," Dr. Gus Kousoulas said, the Director of the Division of Virology at LSU. 

But, Dr. Kousoulas warns that rushing a vaccine may not be the solution. 

“Typical vaccines, testing takes 5 years or more. So I think caution needs to be applied. We need to see all the results. The results have to be evaluated, before there is a general recommendation for the public to immunize,” Kousoulas said. 

This information comes just after Pfizer announced their vaccine trials have proven to be 90-perrcent effective against COVID-19 in patients who had not been infected previously.