URBANA, Ill. (WAND) - Carle Health Foundation Hospital in Urbana is preparing to be the Region 6 coordinating center for the COVID-19 vaccine. 

The hospital is only serving as a holding center for the COVID-19 vaccines. 

Carle health officials said the first doses are set to arrive as early as Tuesday morning. While on their way, the vaccines are held in an extremely controlled environment. The vials are held in thermal shippers, which are packed with dry ice.

Once at Carle Health, the vaccines will be stored among three different freezers. The vaccines must be kept at -80 degrees Celsius, which is about -94 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Facility Services Executive Director Tom Johnson said maintaining the doses at the right temperature is crucial.

"It is our number one mission to keep these things at the minus 80 degrees that they need to be stored at," Johnson said. "I don't think the first couple doses are going to be stored for very long because we'll be the pharmacy will reconstitute them and actually get those ready for injection." 

Once ready for injection, the vaccines will be distributed to local area hospitals in Region 6 counties that have the highest deaths per capita. These include counties such as Macon, Shelby and Iroquois. 

The vice president of pharmacy services for Carle Health, Linda Fred, said leaders want to distribute the vaccine as fast as possible. 

"It will be a process to distribute the vaccine to prioritize the highest risk populations and get it redistributed so everybody just be patient and be cooperative and when your vaccine becomes available to take advantage of that opportunity," Fred tells WAND News. 

Stay tuned to WAND News as we continue our COVID-19 vaccine coverage in central Illinois.Â