U.S. COVID-19 vaccination leads to residences

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. government and two of the nation’s largest drugstore chains begin a national campaign Monday to vaccinate residents of nursing homes against COVID-19, a week after the first vaccinations authorized in the country began to be administered to health workers. .

The program is the latest effort to control a pandemic that has killed more than 300,000 people in the country and strained the capacity of health systems in some states.

The United States has two authorized vaccines against the virus, one developed by Pfizer Inc. and German partner BioNTech SE that was authorized for use on Dec. 11, and one by Moderna Inc., which was approved Friday.

Last week about 2.9 million shots of the Pfizer vaccine were distributed and were administered mainly to health workers. The first injections of Moderna are expected to begin administration on Monday. Approximately 7.9 million doses of the two shots are being distributed nationwide this week.

Recipients of the vaccine on Monday include President-elect Joe Biden, who plans to make his injection public to increase confidence in its safety.

The U.S. government urges states to prioritize those most at risk for the virus, as vaccine supply remains limited. A senior U.S. official said Saturday that the government may not meet its initial goal of inoculating 20 million Americans by the end of the year, with some of those doses expected to drag on until January.

Many states have placed health care workers and nursing home residents first to make vaccines, in line with the recommendations of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Elderly people in residences have been responsible for a disproportionate number of deaths in the pandemic.

The death toll in the United States has accelerated in recent weeks to 2,627 per day in an average of seven days, totaling 317,878 as of Sunday, with a total of 17.78 million cases, according to a Reuters account .

The University of Washington Institute of Health Metrics and Assessment has said U.S. deaths from COVID-19 will peak in January, when its widely cited model projects more than 100,000 people to die as the toll march about 562,000 on April 1st.

Despite requests from officials urging people to stay home to prevent the virus from spreading during the Christmas holidays, air travel increased over the weekend after retiring from Thanksgiving. , according to the Transportation Security Administration.

More than a million people traveled through U.S. airports every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, most since Nov. 29, the TSA said.

A possible bright spot to control the pandemic is that the number of patients with COVID-19 sick enough to be hospitalized has been declining since mid-last week, with a total of 113,100 on Sunday, according to a Reuters account. .

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. and CVS Health Corp. are leading a program, in collaboration with the federal government, that aims to vaccinate about 7 million people in more than 70,000 long-term care centers.

Companies had already started administering the Pfizer vaccine to some residents last week, but its full release begins Monday.

Walgreens said it will offer vaccines this week at about 800 facilities in 12 states. CVS did not specify how many facilities it would visit, but said it also plans to begin administering doses in a dozen states.

Some states have chosen to wait for access to the Moderna shot, which is easier to transport and store, before vaccinating residents of nursing homes, companies said.

Photos of Moderna are also considered easier to distribute in hard-to-reach rural areas. Pfizer shooting requires special handling and should be kept below 70 degrees Celsius. Both have been shown to be almost 95% effective in preventing COVID-19.

Walgreens plans to administer the vaccine to about 3 million residents and staff at 35,000 long-term care centers over the coming weeks as more shots become available. CVS finally plans to vaccinate nearly 4 million residents and staff at more than 40,000 long-term care centers in the same time period.

On Sunday, CDC external advisers recommended that 30 million essential front-line workers be the next priority group for vaccination, including first aid, teachers, public transportation staff and grocery workers.