US coronavirus cases crossed the 15 million mark on Tuesday local time 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 last week alone.
The US Food and Drug Administration raised no new red flags over the safety or efficacy of the Pfizer Inc vaccine developed with Germany's BioNTech SE. Photo: AFP
Record cases in at least three states - Arizona, Alabama and Ohio - pushed the cumulative caseload to over 15 million, according to a Reuters tally of state and county data.
With the virus showing no sign of abating, leading health officials are once again sounding the alarm of further spread when people gather for the year-end holidays.
"We're in for a very challenging period," top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci told a virtual summit on Tuesday.
In a bit of welcome news, Pfizer cleared another hurdle on Tuesday when the US Food and Drug Administration released documents that raised no new red flags over the safety or efficacy of the vaccine it developed with Germany's BioNTech SE.
The documents were prepared ahead of a meeting of a panel of outside advisers on Thursday to discuss whether to recommend FDA emergency use authorization (EUA) of the Pfizer vaccine.
That could eventually provide relief to hospitals buckling under a record 101,498 Covid-19 patients as of Monday, up 16 percent in a week. Healthcare workers are expected to be among the first to receive the vaccine it if receives an EUA.
Health officials predict a swift green light enabling the United States to join Britain, which became the first Western nation to begin mass inoculations with the Pfizer vaccine on Tuesday.
The FDA advisory panel is expected to review Moderna Inc's Covid-19 vaccine next week, potentially giving the public two vaccines that could be distributed in the coming weeks.
While China and Russia have moved forward with their own vaccines, Briton Margaret Keenan, 90, became the first person to receive the Pfizer vaccine outside of clinical trials when she received a shot at her local hospital in Coventry in central England.
The US needs a new tool to fight a virus spinning out of control.
Another 203,474 infections were reported on Monday and 1582 people died.
Holiday surges
In Arizona, one of 14 states without a mask mandate, health officials on Tuesday reported over 12,000 new coronavirus cases, eclipsing the previous record of 6799 on 5 December.
Alabama, which together with Arizona was among about half of US states that had not enacted new restrictions during the latest virus surge, also notched a record-high number of cases on Tuesday, as did Ohio, according to a Reuters analysis.
Experts and officials have expected a surge in cases, hospitalisations and deaths in the aftermath of the Thanksgiving holiday when many Americans travelled to be with family and friends.
In an effort to curb rapidly growing virus metrics, North Carolina became the latest state to clamp down on businesses and social activities. Governor Ray Cooper on Tuesday introduced an order effective Friday that will require residents to stay home between 10 pm and 5am, and businesses including restaurants, bars and most retail stores to close by 10pm.
"A month ago, we were deeply concerned to see daily case counts go above 3000. Now, we're shocked that the number has doubled, with some daily counts at more than 6000," Cooper wrote on Twitter.
In California, most of the population is under heavy new restrictions and in Washington state, Governor Jay Inslee extended for three weeks a package of restrictions, including limits on gatherings and a ban on indoor dining.
Twenty-six states recently enacted statewide measures to curb the spread of the virus.
President Donald Trump, who will be succeeded by President-elect Joe Biden on 20 January, has downplayed public health measures such as mask-wearing and social distancing to halt the virus spread, focusing instead on vaccine development.
Biden has introduced a health crisis team to lead his administration's response to the pandemic, emphasising the mass vaccination distribution needed to achieve hisgoal of 100 million shots in his first 100 days in office.
Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday intended to ensure that priority access for Covid-19 vaccines procured by the US government is given to the American people before assisting other nations.
The administration's Operation Warp Speed vaccine development program lead Dr Moncef Slaoui said on Tuesday vaccinations could begin in the US as early as next week, and that he was confident there would be enough vaccines to immunise 70 percent to 80 percent of the US population by mid-May.
Slaoui, speaking in an interview with Fox News, said he was more worried about the number of Americans who rejected medical science and feared vaccines were unsafe or a conspiracy to harm the public than he was about supply issues.
"The highest concern I have is the level of hesitancy within the population as to accepting whether they will be immunised or not," Slaoui said, pleading with people to keep an open mind.
"Please don't come to a conclusion before you have been exposed to the data."
- Reuters