U.S. coronavirus cases crossed the 15 million mark on Dec. 8 as regulators moved a step closer to approving a Covid-19 vaccine and Britain started inoculating people, offering hope of slowing a pandemic that killed 15,000 Americans in the previous week.
Pfizer Inc. cleared the next hurdle in the race to get the company’s Covid-19 vaccine approved for emergency use after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released documents that raised no new issues about its safety or efficacy.
The United States lost 15,000 people to Covid-19 during the week ended Dec. 6, the deadliest seven days since April, and health officials warned that the worst is yet to come.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration placed a clinical hold on patient enrollment and dosing in an early-stage trial of the Bellicum Pharmaceuticals’ cancer treatment BPX-601, after the death of a patient.
Moscow began distributing the Sputnik V Covid-19 shot via 70 clinics on Dec. 5 to the most exposed groups, marking Russia’s first large-scale vaccination against the disease, the city’s coronavirus task force said.
The mayor of San Francisco ordered new lockdowns and business restrictions across the Bay Area in the face of the Covid-19 surge, as political leaders nationwide ramp up pressure on Americans to stay home until vaccines can be distributed.
U.S. leaders urgently called on Americans to wear masks and threatened even more drastic stay-at-home orders after deaths from the coronavirus set a single-day record, with two people dying every minute.
The United States set single-day records for new infections and deaths as California’s governor said he would impose some of the nation’s strictest stay-at-home orders in the coming days when intensive care units are expected to reach capacity.
U.S. deaths from the coronavirus pandemic surged past 2,000 for two days in a row as the most dangerous season of the year approached, taxing an overwhelmed healthcare system with U.S. political leadership in disarray.
The United States recorded 10,000 coronavirus deaths and more than 1.1 million new cases for the week ended Nov. 29, although state and health officials said the Thanksgiving holiday likely caused numbers to be under-reported.
