As the total number of COVID-19 cases in United States hits 16 million, the federal government is planning to deliver the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to the hospitals and other sites across US by Monday (Dec 14).
According to reports, the shots will begin leaving the Pfizer factory in Michigan on Sunday, stored in boxes containing dry ice that are capable of staying at -70 degree Celsius (-94 degrees Farenheit), the essential temperature needed to preserve the drug.
General Gus Perna, who is overseeing the massive logistical operation as part of the government’s Operation Warp Speed, said, “I am absolutely 100 percent confident that we are going to distribute safely, this precious commodity, this vaccine, needed to defeat the enemy Covid”.
Mr Perna also said that hundreds of sites, including hospitals and other distribution centers, would receive the vaccines from Monday to Wednesday.
The quick delivery Pfizer vaccine comes at a time when the coronavirus is soaring across the country with fatalities now approaching 3,00,000 and nearly 16 million cases of infection.
Federal health authorities have recommended that health care workers and nursing home residents be at the front of the line, but the final decisions have been left to states. The FDA has made no definitive ruling regarding whether pregnant women or the immuno-compromised should be given the shots, instead punting that call to people to make for themselves in consultation with their doctors.
The vaccine was approved on Saturday(Dec 12) by the US Food and Drug Administration. The US became the sixth country to green-light the Pfizer vaccine.
