New York City aims to vaccinate 1 million residents against the coronavirus by the end of January 2021, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
Facing a backlog in administering coronavirus vaccines, U.S. states are asking medical and nursing students, and even firefighters, to help give the shots and free up healthcare workers battling a raging pandemic at overcrowded hospitals.
A winter storm that blasted the U.S. Northeast with snow, rain and gusty winds was likely to dump a foot (30 cm) or more of snow on parts of New England before heading out to sea.
The United States authorized the use of Pfizer Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine on Dec. 11, with the first inoculations expected within days, marking a turning point in a country where the pandemic has killed more than 295,000 people.
The United States’ daily death toll from Covid-19 surpassed 3,000 for the first time, prompting pleas for Americans to scale back Christmas plans even with vaccines on the cusp of winning regulatory approval.
A 90-year-old grandmother became the world’s first person to receive a fully tested Covid-19 shot on Dec. 8, as Britain began mass-vaccinating its people in a global drive that poses one of the biggest logistical challenges in peacetime history.
Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), noted that it would take time – possibly months – before people 18 years of age and younger could get a Covid-19 vaccine because clinical trials were either underway or had not yet begun.
The World Health Organization tightened guidelines on wearing face masks, recommending that, where Covid-19 is spreading, they be worn by everyone in health care facilities and for all interactions in poorly ventilated indoor spaces.
One in seven cases of Covid-19 reported to the World Health Organization is a health worker and in some countries that figure rises to one in three, according to the WHO.
