The US federal government plans to send 6.4 million doses of pharmaceutical company Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine to communities across the country within 24 hours of regulatory clearance. The shots are expected to be immediately administered to front-line healthcare workers, the priority group.
6.4 Million Doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine Could Go Out in December
According to Gen. Gustave Perna, who supervises logistics for Operation Warp Speed, with the Trump government's effort to accelerate vaccines and treatments, state officials were informed on Friday of the dissemination based on every state's overall population.
With three vaccine developers saying their novel coronavirus vaccines are at least 90% effective, the United States government is gearing up plans to disseminate the shots across the nation.
Members of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) - which supervises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - and Operation Warp Speed provided the latest information on the vaccine rollout in a November 24 briefing, reported Time.
States would start receiving the initial doses of coronavirus vaccines in mid-December. However, they would make their own determinations on the initial people in line for a shot.
Pfizer's vaccine's 6.4 million doses would be disseminated to states and territories by mid-December, assuming it receives the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorization by that point, reported The Hill.
Aside from health care workers, the first doses are expected to go to a few other susceptible groups potentially. The amounts would be allocated to all 50 states and eight territories, including six major metropolitan areas. The quantities would be based on the number of adults who reside in every jurisdiction.
A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) committee meets on December 10 to decide whether to clear the vaccine for emergency use.
According to General Gustave Perna, chief operations officer for the government's Operation Warp Speed, some 40 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine would be in the market by the end of next month.
The United States is currently confronted by soaring numbers of fatalities and new cases of the virus.
According to the most recent figures on Tuesday, the United States had registered a total of 259,600 fatalities and 12.5 million confirmed cases with beyond 2,000 deaths and 167,000 new cases in the last 24 hours.
The 40 million figure includes another vaccine created by Moderna and the National Institutes for Health (NIH), which declared some preliminary effectiveness results the previous week and is nearing application for emergency approval.
The 6.4 million doses will cover a portion of the US' 20 million healthcare workers, let alone the United States population of 330 million. However, Perna stated, "a steady drumbeat" of additional doses would be allocated as manufacturing capacity ramps up in each preceding week, reported The Day.
According to HHS Secretary Alex Azar, "I reiterated my firm commitment that the transition planning and execution will be professional, cooperative and collaborative in the best spirit of looking out for the health and wellbeing of the American people."
