Health News Roundup: Germany's confirmed coronavirus cases rise by 28,438; Trump aide Meadows urges FDA's Hahn to approve vaccine by Friday and more

The official told Reuters that Meadows' comment about resigning "wasn't a red line," but was more of a quip with the intention of urging "the FDA to act quickly and get the job done and stop the delays." Explainer-Where are we in the COVID-19 vaccine race? Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE received U.S. regulatory authorization for their COVID-19 vaccine on Friday, making it the first inoculation against the new coronavirus to get a regulatory green light in the United States.

Two adolescent siblings in the United States who signed up for a coronavirus vaccine trial said they did it because they wanted to make their own small contribution to history. Nathan Williams, 17, and his sister Delilah, 12, signed up for the trial after spending months in pandemic isolation. Their mother, Melanie Williams, is a nurse and hospital administrator who works on a ward dealing with COVID-19 patients.

Germany's confirmed coronavirus cases rise by 28,438: RKI

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 28,438 to 1,300,516, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Saturday. The reported death toll rose by 496 to 21,466, the tally showed.

Trump aide Meadows urges FDA's Hahn to approve vaccine by Friday

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows urged U.S. Food and Drug Administration head Stephen Hahn to authorize Pfizer Inc's COVID-19 vaccine by Friday and quipped that he should prepare to resign if not, a senior administration official said on Friday. Meadows leaned on Hahn during a phone conversation on Friday. The official told Reuters that Meadows' comment about resigning "wasn't a red line," but was more of a quip with the intention of urging "the FDA to act quickly and get the job done and stop the delays."

Explainer-Where are we in the COVID-19 vaccine race?

Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE received U.S. regulatory authorization for their COVID-19 vaccine on Friday, making it the first inoculation against the new coronavirus to get a regulatory green light in the United States. The following is what we know about the race to deliver vaccines to help end the coronavirus pandemic that has killed 1.59 million people worldwide: U.S. readies COVID-19 inoculation rollout as regulators OK first vaccine

U.S. health authorities, shipping services and hospitals stood ready on Friday to immediately launch a mass-inoculation campaign of unparalleled dimension, as federal regulators granted emergency approval to the first COVID-19 vaccine in the United States. Last-minute preparations for the vaccine rollout came as the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus pandemic approached 300,000 to date, capping weeks of ominously surging infections and hospitalizations that have strained healthcare systems to their limits.