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
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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
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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.
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Healthcare providers across the country were the first to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine Monday, kicking off the most urgent mass vaccination campaign in decades.
Sandra Lindsay,
a critical care nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, New York, was one of the first people in the United States to receive the coronavirus vaccine Monday morning. I’m feeling well,” Lindsay said after receiving the vaccine. “I hope this marks the beginning of the end of a painful time in our history. I want to instill public confidence that the vaccine is safe. We’re in a pandemic, and so, we all need to do our part to put an end to the pandemic and to not give up so soon.
50 Million Americans Could Receive COVID-19 Vaccine by January: HHS
Alex Azar, head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), said on Monday that by the end of January, some 50 million Americans could have received their first shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
Azar made the remarks at a vaccine kickoff event at the George Washington University Hospital, which received its first shipment of the vaccine on Monday morning. Developed by Pfizer and German partner BioNTech, the COVID-19 vaccine won emergency use authorization on Friday.
“We literally have millions of doses right now getting out there to the American people,” Azar said. “And by next week, we believe we could be having a second vaccine.”
The weapon that will end the war : First coronavirus vaccine shots given in U.S.
Respiratory care practitioner Raul Aguilar receives the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center in Los Angeles, Monday, Dec. 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Dr. Maggie Hagan, an infectious disease specialist at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis hospital got the second dose of the coronavirus vaccination on Monday, Dec. 14, 2020, in Wichita, Kan. Garrett is a MICU nurse serving in the COVID-19 Unit. Administering it is Aimee Wilson, supervisor, Associate and Occupational Health for Ascension Via Christi. (Jaime Green/The Wichita Eagle via AP)
(Moderna Inc./Handout via Reuters)
The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday found that Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine to be safe and “highly effective,” paving the way for the vaccine to become the second one authorized for emergency use.
The agency declared in a 54-page report released Tuesday that the Massachusetts biotech firm’s product is 94 percent effective at preventing the disease associated with the coronavirus said said there are no safety concerns associated with the vaccine. However, in people older than 65, Moderna’s vaccine had only an 86.4 percent rate of immunization success, according to the report.
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Next, the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee is set to convene on Thursday and recommend that the Moderna vaccine be approved for emergency use.