CDC says 9 million Americans now vaccinated as U.S. states scramble

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo last week relented on his demand that all healthcare workers be offered a vaccine before other groups become eligible, which led to hundreds of doses being wasted as half-finished vials were discarded at the end of each day. He has since said that certain groups of other essential workers and people over age 75 as of Monday can make appointments to receive a shot.


Reuters | Updated: 12-01-2021 03:54 IST | Created: 12-01-2021 03:54 IST
CDC says 9 million Americans now vaccinated as U.S. states scramble

Nearly 9 million Americans had been given their first COVID-19 vaccination dose as of Monday morning, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, as states scrambled to step up inoculations that have yet to slow the roaring pandemic. The 8,987,322 people who have been given the first of two shots, according to the CDC, represent less than one-third of the total doses distributed to states by the U.S. government.

Michigan Governor Christine Whitman on Monday sought permission from the Trump administration to directly purchase 100,000 doses of the vaccine manufactured by Pfizer Inc, partner BioNTech SE, which was cleared by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use. The FDA has also approved a vaccine made by Moderna .

"We remain ready to accelerate distribution to get doses into arms," Whitmer, a first-term Democrat, said in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has pledged to inoculate 1 million residents by the end of January, told reporters that the city could run out of vaccine doses if the federal government does not send more.

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office on Jan. 20, is considering releasing to states more vaccine doses that the federal government had stockpiled in an effort to ensure enough supply for a required second dose. Second shots of both authorized vaccines are prescribed for three or four weeks after the first.

Public health experts have said no U.S. state, including New York, has so far come close to using up its federal allotments of vaccines, due in some instances to rigid rules sharply limiting who can be inoculated. The slow roll out of vaccinations has yet to make a dent in the health crisis as the pandemic claimed on average about 3,200 lives nationwide each day over the last week. COVID-19 has killed more than 374,000 people in the United States since March.

States in recent days have been adding vaccination capacity with the ad hoc conversion of sports venues, convention halls and empty schools into vaccine centers. Los Angeles officials have said that a testing site at Dodger Stadium would be converted to a vaccination hub. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo last week relented on his demand that all healthcare workers be offered a vaccine before other groups become eligible, which led to hundreds of doses being wasted as half-finished vials were discarded at the end of each day.

He has since said that certain groups of other essential workers and people over age 75 as of Monday can make appointments to receive a shot. There are now over 4 million people in New York state eligible to receive the vaccine out of a population of about 19 million, Cuomo said on Monday at his annual State of the State Address, but only about 1 million doses on hand.

"We only receive 300,000 doses per week from the federal government," he said. "At this rate, it will take us 14 weeks, just to receive enough dosages for those currently eligible." New York has so far recorded nearly 40,000 COVID-19 related deaths, by far the most of any U.S. state.

Texas and Florida have been vaccinating people over age 65 since late December, although reports from those states have indicated that demand has far outstripped appointments.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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