COVID-19: Over 4.2 million people inoculated in US as cases continue to surge

The United States continues to inoculate its citizens with the COVID-19 vaccine as cases continue to surge. According to the CDC tracker, more than 13 million coronavirus vaccines have been distributed in the region but only 4.2 million people have been inoculated. The doses that have been distributed belong to both Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. The US remains the worst hit region by the virus with a total of 21,113,528 cases and 360,078 fatalities. 

(Image Credits: covid.cdc.gov)

Current situation in the US 

According to the official website of CDC, healthcare providers report doses to federal, state, territorial, and local agencies up to 72 hours after administration. Sometimes there can be a lag for data to be transmitted from the federal, state, territorial, or local agency to CDC. The difference in the number of doses distributed and the number of people initiating vaccination currently is due to various factors, including, delays in reporting of administered doses and management of available vaccine stocks by jurisdictions and federal pharmacy partners.

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(Image Credits: covid.cdc.gov)

$2 billion deal 

Recently, the US signed a new $2 billion deal with Pfizer and BioNTech as a part of which, 100 million additional doses will be provided by mid-summer. This addition means the US pharmaceutical company and the German drugmaker will now be delivering a total of 200 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidates to the US. This will result in immunisation of nearly 100 million people against the highly-infectious disease. In a statement, the companies had announced their plan and said that all doses are expected to be delivered by July 31, 2021.

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Hailing the deal Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said that following the delivery of 200 million doses, will enable the United States ‘to protect more people’ and end up controlling the COVID-19 pandemic more quickly. He also said that the company is willing to work with the US government along with healthcare providers across the nation. In a statement, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Alex Azar noted that the US securing more vaccines has further expanded the government’s supply of doses under the ‘Operation Warp Speed’ portfolio.

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(Image Credits: RepresentativeImage)