OTTAWA -- Three days before the first Ottawa health care workers receive the COVID-19 vaccine, an infectious disease specialist says it's "pretty remarkable" Ontario and Canada are preparing to vaccinate people before Christmas.

UPS Canada shared what they called the "first images" of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine being processed in Germany on Saturday for the flight to Canada.

Three-thousand doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine are expected to arrive in Ottawa on Monday, with the first long-term care workers rolling up their sleeves on Tuesday. Another 3,000 doses of the vaccine will arrive in Toronto.

Speaking on CTV News at Six with anchor Christina Succi, Dr. Isaac Bogoch said Ontario wants to vaccinate health care workers in long-term care homes first.

"We know that Ontario prioritized the highest of the high-risk category, so that's going to be people who are living and working in long-term care facilities," said Dr. Bogoch Saturday evening.

"Because it's challenging; we don't have a tonne of vaccine coming in, it's really going to prioritize those who are working in long-term care facilities first."

Mayor Jim Watson told reporters on Friday that health care workers would need to travel to the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus to receive the vaccine since it cannot be moved. Watson added Ottawa Public Health is contacting long-term care workers over the weekend to set up appointments.

Ontario health officials have dubbed Tuesday, "V-Day" – the first day of the COVID-19 vaccination.

Premier Doug Ford announced Thursday that Ottawa and Toronto would be the first sites to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

A total 1,500 health care workers will receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Ottawa when vaccinations start on Tuesday.

In a statement on Friday, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Vera Etches said the arrival of the Pfizer vaccine is a "significant and encouraging milestone" in the fight against COVID-19.

"We have a long road ahead, but we have turned the page on a vital chapter in our COVID-19 story."

Dr. Etches added, "Here's what we do know: vaccines work. And it will have an impact immediately; one singe vaccination could prevent an outbreak and save lives."

Dr. Bogoch tells CTV News at Six the Ontario government wants to targeted the "highest of high-risk groups in the high risk areas" with the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

"I think we're going to see a data driven approach that's going to highlight, for example, long-term care facilities that are in Ontario red zones or in Ontario grey zones, which are under lockdowns first," said Dr. Bogoch.

"And then there will be a data driven approach to determine which care facilities should be prioritized. Of course, as there's greater and greater supply, they'll be able to branch out to all of the facilities, including the residents and the staff that work there."

Dr. Bogoch says Health Canada's approval of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine will be a big boost to the campaign to vaccinate Canadians from novel coronavirus.

"It's pretty remarkable that we're rolling out vaccine programs in mid to late November when we thought, perhaps even a couple of months ago, that this was going to be something that would start in the first quarter of 2021," said Dr. Bogoch.

"So already off the bat, even through we have a limited supply, something is better than nothing and it's great to see that these, I guess we call these pilot programs are going to roll out soon."