First Batch Of US Pfizer Vaccinations To Begin Dec. 14

The US public will start receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine from Monday after it was authorised for emergency use.

The first three million doses of the vaccine would be shipped “across all states” this weekend, said General Gustave Perna, who is overseeing distribution.

BBC reports that the vaccine offers up to 95% protection against Covid-19 and was deemed safe by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The US, on Saturday, recorded a daily toll of 3,309 Covid-related deaths.

The figure, reported on the Johns Hopkins University website, is the highest total in a single day anywhere in the world.

Read also: Canada Joins UK To Approve Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine

Coronavirus deaths have been rising sharply since November in the US.

Authorising the emergency use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Friday, the FDA – which had come under intense pressure from the Trump administration to do so – said the move was a “significant milestone” in the pandemic.

A mass inoculation drive using doses of the same vaccine has already begun in the UK.

Perna told reporters he was “100% confident” that the doses “needed to defeat the enemy Covid” would be transported safely.

He noted, however, that while it had been a week of progress, “we are not done until every American has access to a vaccine”.