TODAY
December 21, 2020
The U.S. government and two of the nation’s largest pharmacy chains on Monday began a nationwide campaign to vaccinate nursing home residents against COVID-19, a week after the first vaccines authorized in the country went to healthcare workers.
The program led by Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc and CVS Health Corp is the latest effort to control a pandemic with a staggering U.S. death toll of more than 317,000 lives lost that is straining the capacity of healthcare systems in many states.
The United States now has two authorized vaccines to protect against the virus, one developed by Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE that was cleared for use on Dec. 11, and one from Moderna Inc that was approved on Friday.
U.S. COVID-19 vaccination drive heads to nursing homes
Many states have put healthcare workers and nursing home residents first in line for vaccinations, in keeping with recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Written By:
Carl O Donnell and Richa Naidu / Reuters | 9:43 am, Dec. 21, 2020 ×
Bob Atighechi administers the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination to Margaret Dubois, 87, a resident at The Reservoir nursing facility, in West Hartford, Connecticut, on Dec. 18. Stephen Dunn/Pool via REUTERS
NEW YORK, Dec. 21 (Reuters) The U.S. government and two of the nation s largest pharmacy chains kick off a nationwide campaign to vaccinate nursing home residents against COVID-19 on Monday, a week after the first vaccines authorized in the country began being administered to healthcare workers.
Countries including Italy, Germany, Canada and Israel have barred flights from the U.K. following reports of the new strain.
Vin Gupta, an affiliate assistant professor from the University of Washington s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said he s confident that the current vaccines will protect against different strains of COVID. There is a strong belief here that the vaccine, as it exists today … will have effectiveness in warding off infection from this new strain in England, in addition to the old strain that we ve been contending with for months now, said Gupta.
That s because at the genetic level, the new strain is likely to be very similar to prior strains, he told CNBC s Squawk Box Asia on Monday.
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