Sign up for our special edition newsletter to get a daily update on the coronavirus pandemic.

The first vaccinations against the deadly coronavirus in the US were delivered to New York City’s front-line workers Monday at the Big Apple’s major public and private hospital systems.

Health officials hope the delivery of the shots marks the beginning of a turning point in the battle to beat the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 24,000 people in the five boroughs over the last year.

Mayor Bill de Blasio told CNN on Monday morning that he was “proud” the first shots were being distributed in New York and said he would visit a hospital owned by the city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation to see it being administered.

One of the city’s largest private hospital systems, Northwell Health, delivered its first shots Monday to two of its front-line employees in an event set at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens.