A front-line medical worker with underlying health conditions received Colorado’s first COVID-19 vaccination shot Monday afternoon, launching a months-long inoculation campaign to inoculate people across the state against the novel coronavirus.

Colorado received its first doses of the vaccine from manufacturer Pfizer earlier in the morning and more shipments will arrive over the next two days. With this initial batch, Colorado will receive enough doses to give 46,800 people their first of the two required shots.

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“Who ever thought we’d be excited to see a needle?” Gov. Jared Polis said prior to the first injection at UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital.

Employees of the Fort Collins hospital were to be the first Coloradans to receive doses of the vaccine. The first vaccine was slated to go to Kevin Londrigan, a respiratory therapist who has underlying health conditions.

First Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine shipment arrives in Colorado

“This has been a long, exhausting time coming,” he said before being inoculated. “The vaccine isn’t the end of it, but it is the light at the end of the tunnel.”

The Fort Collins hospital was expected to vaccinate 20 health care workers on Monday, with another 20 due to be vaccinated at UCHealth’s Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs.