Coronavirus live updates: Breakthrough home test gets OK from FDA; 1 in 6 who share home with COVID patient will get sick Jorge L. Ortiz, Jessica Flores and Ryan W. Miller, USA TODAY
COVID-19 has now killed 300,000 Americans
Replay Video UP NEXT
USA TODAY is keeping track of the news surrounding COVID-19 as vaccines begin to roll out nationwide. Just this week, the US marked the stark milestone of more than 300,000 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic
.
Keep refreshing this page for the latest updates on vaccine distribution, including who is getting the shots and where, as well as other important COVID-19 news from across the USA TODAY Network.
Coronavirus live updates: Fauci calls vaccine rollout ‘bittersweet’
Ovidiu Dugulan/iStock
By MORGAN WINSOR, IVAN PEREIRA and ERIN SCHUMAKER, ABC News
(NEW YORK) A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 72.8 million people and killed over 1.6 million worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Here’s how the news is developing Tuesday. All times Eastern:
Dec 15, 9:59 am
Kentucky doctor who was among 1st to be vaccinated warns against ‘false sense of security’
A Kentucky doctor who was among the first Americans to receive a COVID-19 vaccine outside a clinical trial this week encouraged others to get immunized as soon as possible but also warned against any “false sense of security.”
Meet the nurse who was the first person in N.J. to get a COVID-19 vaccine
Updated Dec 16, 2020;
Posted Dec 15, 2020
Maritza Beniquez, an emergency room nurse at University Hospital in Newark, on Tuesday becomes the first person in New Jersey to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
Facebook Share
Not out of fear, she insisted.
“Just from excitement,” she explained. “Like a puppy that’s just really excited.”
For the last nine months, Beniquez has witnessed the horror of the coronavirus pandemic first-hand as an ER nurse at the Newark hospital.
But with a jab to her right arm at 8:10 a.m., she became the first person in New Jersey to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, outside of a clinical trial.
U S seeks to educate sceptics, keep up guard with vaccinations under way reuters.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from reuters.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
N.J. administers its first COVID-19 vaccine dose to University Hospital nurse
Updated Dec 16, 2020;
Twitter Share
It was a birthday present Maritza Beniquez won’t soon forget.
On Tuesday morning 286 days after the state reported its first case Beniquez, an emergency room nurse at University Hospital in Newark, became the first person in New Jersey to receive a vaccine for the coronavirus, other than clinical trials.
“Thank you, God!” a beaming Beniquez said just after receiving the shot in her right arm at 8:10 a.m. during a ceremony at the hospital, coincidentally on her 56th birthday. “I couldn’t wait for this moment to hit New Jersey.”