More than a million people have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine in the United States, according to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Robert Redfield.
“The United States reached an early but important milestone today: jurisdictions have reported that more than a million people have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine since administration began ten days ago,” Redfield said. .
In a call to reporters, Moncef Slaoui, chief adviser to the government’s Operation Warp Speed, said “the target of immunizing 20 million people this month is unlikely to be met.”
But he said the United States was still targeting 100 million people immunized by the end of the first quarter of 2021 and another 100 million in the second quarter.
Three million doses were delivered to the United States last week, with the first authorized vaccine, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, administered on December 14th.
This week, the goal was to distribute 6 million doses of vaccine by Moderna this week and another 2 million by Pfizer.
The United States is the most affected country in the world and is in the midst of an extreme winter wave.
More than 320,000 people have succumbed to the virus and it is likely to be the leading cause of death in 2020 behind heart disease and cancer.
© France-Presse Agency