WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - As the number of people hospitalized in the United States from coronavirus infection continues to rise breaking records on a daily basis, a second COVID-19 vaccine for the country is getting closer to get regulatory approval for emergency use.
The Food and Drug Administration's advisory panel on Thursday voted unanimously to recommend emergency use authorization of the Moderna's vaccine, paving the way for its rollout.
Stephen M. Hahn, Commissioner of Food and Drugs, said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has informed Moderna that it will rapidly work toward finalization and issuance of an emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine. The agency has also notified the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Operation Warp Speed, so they can execute their plans for timely vaccine distribution.
A massive coronavirus vaccination effort kicked off nationwide on Monday with Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine shipments sent to all 50 states.
The Defense Logistics Agency said it is ready to ship vaccine doses for Defense Department employees and the U.S. Navy Fleet deployed in overseas locations.
As per the latest update published by COVID Tracking Project on Wednesday, a total of 114,237 patients are currently admitted in U.S. hospitals with the deadly disease. This is the 16th consecutive day that the country is surpassing 100,000 hospitalizations, and 12th straight day that hospitalizations hit new records.
21,900 of the COVID patients in the country are admitted in ICU, and 7,847 others are in ventilator, according to the U.S. collaborative volunteer-run effort to track the pandemic.
As hospitalizations continue to rise nationwide, many states that experienced significant outbreaks in earlier months are again under strain, according to COVID Tracking Project.
The U.S. collaborative volunteer-run effort to track the pandemic published its weekly update Thursday. 'The case data this week is mixed. States reported a record high of new COVID-19 deaths for the second week in a row. In the Midwest, cases and hospitalizations are falling. More than 50,000 Black Americans have died of COVID-19.'
On Thursday, national Covid test positivity rate was 16.4 percent, higher than the 7 day average of 14.1 percent.
With 3281 additional fatalities reporting in the last 24 hours, the total U.S. death toll from the deadly disease rose to 310782, as per latest data from the Johns Hopkins University. 17 days into December, this month is already the second deadliest of the pandemic for U.S.
During the same period, 2,32,719 new cases were reported across the country, taking the total number of patients infected with the disease to 17212496.
California alone reported more than 250,000 new cases this week. COVID-19 hospitalizations have more than doubled since Thanksgiving in 6 California counties. In Los Angeles, the most populous county in the country, one in 80 people has COVID-19.
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