President Joe Biden on May 4 announced a goal to vaccinate 70 percent of U.S. adults with at least one Covid-19 shot by the July 4 Independence Day holiday and said the government would innoculate 12- to 15-year-olds as soon as allowed. The president had previously announced July 4 as a target date for Americans to gather in small groups to celebrate the holiday and signal a return to greater normalcy in the middle of the pandemic.
The three largest U.S. drug distributors, facing their first trial over claims that they fueled the opioid crisis, said responsibility for ballooning painkiller sales lies with doctors, drugmakers and regulators.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is preparing to authorize Pfizer Inc. and German partner BioNTech SE’s Covid-19 vaccine for adolescents aged between 12 and 15 years by early next week, the New York Times reported on May 3, citing federal officials familiar with the regulatory agency’s plans.
New cases of Covid-19 in the United States fell for a third week in a row, dropping 15 percent during the week ended May 2 to 347,000 – the lowest weekly total since October – according to a Reuters analysis of state and county data.
New cases of Covid-19 in the United States fell for a fourth week in a row – dropping 17 percent in the week ended May 9 to just under 290,000 – the lowest weekly total since September, according to a Reuters analysis of state and county data.
The Biden administration said on April 30 it is extending face mask requirements across all U.S. transportation networks through Sept. 13 to address the spread of Covid-19.
The United States had fully vaccinated 101,407,318 people for Covid-19 as of the morning of April 30, accounting for 30.5 percent of the population, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Moderna Inc. said on April 28 the U.S. government had agreed to increase the contract for the company’s Covid-19 vaccine by $236 million to roughly $1.25 billion, to include additional costs related to the shot’s studies.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not found a link between heart inflammation and Covid-19 vaccines, the agency’s Director Rochelle Walensky said on April 27.
Two new cases of blood clots after administration of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose Covid-19 vaccine are being investigated by federal health officials, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on April 27.
