Biden receives COVID-19 vaccine at ChristianaCare Monday afternoon

President-elect Joe Biden received his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at ChristianaCare on Monday.

"We owe you big," Biden told the nurse practitioner administering his shot. "The whole staff, you've been incredible."

Biden is one of several national politicians who have received early vaccinations in an effort, they say, to convince the American public the vaccines are safe. Biden received the vaccine on live television around 3:30 p.m. at the Christiana hospital off Route 4.

Tabe Mase, a nurse practitioner and head of employee health services at ChristianaCare, administered Biden's shot, a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

"I know, I know," she replied to Biden. "Everybody has stepped up and is doing what they need to do."

After Biden declined her offer for a count to three, Mase administered the shot in his left arm, rolling up the sleeve of his black long-sleeve turtleneck. Jill Biden, who received her first dose of the vaccine earlier Monday, stood to his right.

On Friday, Mase administered ChristianaCare's first vaccine to respiratory therapist Kathleen Bonis. Afterward, she called the experience "humbling" and said the vaccine represents "a sigh of relief."

Biden's vaccination came on the same day Delaware recorded another nine deaths from COVID-19. Five were residents of long-term care facilities, according to the state, and their deaths brought the statewide total to 871.

A second COVID-19 vaccine, produced by Moderna, began arriving across the nation Monday, three days after the Food and Drug Administration authorized it and roughly a week after states started receiving and administering the Pfizer vaccine.

Last week, Delaware administered more than 2,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to health care workers and staff at long-term care facilities. The state is expecting to receive 16,700 doses of the Moderna vaccine this week and an additional 2,925 doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were among the lawmakers who received early vaccines Friday. President Donald Trump, who was hospitalized with COVID-19 in October, has not said when he will receive the vaccine.

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Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, are expected to receive the vaccine the week after next.

Delaware's congressional delegation — Sens. Tom Carper and Chris Coons and Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester — received the vaccine on Saturday.

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Contact Brandon Holveck at bholveck@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter @holveck_brandon.