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DENVER (KDVR) – As the Pfizer Coronavirus vaccine makes it way to Colorado, local providers are making special accommodations.

“We are prepared to get the vaccine and store it,” said Joshua Sanchez, an infectious disease pharmacist at Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center in Denver.

“Unlike say a flu vaccine clinic, this is going to be a little bit more logistically challenging in that we still want to maintain social distancing, and the expiration is pretty tight compared to influenza, so we want to make sure we don’t waste any doses,” he said.

Sanchez says the vaccine must be kept at minus 75 degrees Celsius until it is ready to be used.

“At that point in time we have to thaw it. We can either thaw it at room temperture or under refrigeration, and then once its thawed and stored under refrigeration we have five days to use that,” he said.

Plus, the vaccine will come as a powder and must be reconstituted. At that point it must be used in six hours. The flu vaccine does not have all of those requirements.

Other coronavirus vaccines will have their own requirements, but both Pfizer and Moderna require two doses, which the flu vaccine does not.

Sanchez says it is very important to get both doses, and to get the same one each time.

“Don’t get Pfizer the first time and Moderna the second time, or vice versa,” he said.