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WASHINGTON: The United States on Thursday (Dec. 17) expanded its campaign to deliver COVID-19 vaccine injections into the arms of doctors and nurses on the front lines of a pandemic that has killed more than 2,500 Americans per day, including as a great winter storm. threatened to slow progress on the east coast.
While medical professionals at a growing number of hospitals rolled up their sleeves, lawmakers on Capitol Hill said they were closing in on a long-elusive bipartisan deal on $ 900 billion economic relief to help fuel a ravaged US economy. the pandemic.
The launch of the first 2.9 million dose tranche of a newly licensed vaccine from Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE continued for a third full day, with shipments going to 66 more distribution centers across the country.
A second vaccine from Moderna Inc could get emergency use approval from the US Food and Drug Administration this week.
READ: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Sinovac: A Look at Three Key COVID-19 Vaccines
Express delivery companies FedEx and United Parcel Service, which share a leadership role in vaccine shipments, said they were monitoring the potential impacts of snow and ice that had begun to disrupt transportation systems along the East Coast Wednesday.
US Army Gen. Gustave Perna, who oversees the government’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine campaign, said FedEx and UPS have developed strategies for bad weather, including plans to keep delayed vaccine shipments safe until they can. be “delivered the next day”.
“We are on the right track with all the deliveries that we said we were making,” Perna told reporters at a briefing.
Some 570 other vaccine distribution centers received most of the initial batch of shipments Monday and Tuesday, and an even larger wave was due to be delivered to 886 additional locations on Friday, Perna said.
From each distribution site, the vaccine doses were distributed among area hospitals and administered to health workers, designated as the first to be immunized. Some also went to residents and staff at long-term care facilities. Subsequent rounds of vaccines will target other essential workers, the elderly and people with chronic diseases.
READ: Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine Overcomes US FDA’s First Hurdle.
US President-elect Joe Biden, who has said he would receive the vaccine publicly to help inspire confidence in his safety, is expected to receive his first injection next week, according to his transition team.
Biden, 78, is in a high-risk category for the coronavirus because of his age.
“IT IS NOT OVER YET”
It will be several months before vaccines are widely available to the public on demand, and opinion polls have found that many Americans are hesitant to get vaccinated.
Meanwhile, political leaders and medical authorities have launched a media blitz assuring Americans that vaccines are safe while urging them to avoid growing weary of social distancing and wearing masks as the pandemic continues.
“It’s not over yet,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, told CBS News on Wednesday. “Public health measures are the bridge to get to the vaccine, which will get us out of this.”
Data shows that rising COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations are pushing health care systems to the limit in much of the country, with many intensive care units at or near capacity.
READ: Alaska Health Worker Had Severe Allergic Reaction After Pfizer Vaccine: Report
The United States reported 3,102 deaths from coronavirus on Tuesday, the third-highest daily number since the pandemic began and the third time in a week that the number has surpassed 3,000. The seven-day average exceeded 2,500 lives lost every 24 hours for the first time this week.
To date, deaths from COVID-19 have risen to 304,187 nationally, according to a Reuters tally, while the case burden of 16.7 million known infections accounted for about 5 percent of the US population.
With hospitalizations setting a record for the eighteenth day in a row (more than 112,000 patients in treatment on Tuesday), health experts warn that the death toll will rise further in the coming weeks, even as the vaccine campaign steadily expands. .
Another 2 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 5.9 million doses of the Moderna vaccine could be allocated next week, US Health Secretary Alex Azar said in a conference call on Wednesday. Two doses of the vaccines, given three to four weeks apart, would be required for each person inoculated.
In total, the United States had options to buy up to 300 million doses of those vaccines, Azar said, in addition to hundreds of millions more doses of vaccines that have not yet received approval, including some single-dose drugs.
The United States could have a surplus supply of vaccines in the future, if all the vaccines it has obtained are licensed for use, Azar said, which could eventually benefit other countries.
The Trump administration was also in talks to secure additional doses of antibody treatment from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Eli Lilly and Co, Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Moncef Slaoui said in the same conference call.
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