The United States is expected to see a substantial boost in Covid-19 vaccines shipped and ready for administration in the coming weeks. The directors of Pfizer and Moderna told Congress on Tuesday that drug manufacturers are preparing to almost double their current production. And on Wednesday, Food and Drug Administration staff approved Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine, paving the way for an emergency use permit immediately after this week. A J&J executive said that once the drug is licensed, the company will be ready to deliver more than 20 million doses by the end of March.
The United States has at least 71,500 new cases of Covid-19 and at least 2,030 virus-related deaths each day, based on a seven-day average calculated by CNBC using data from Johns Hopkins University.
The following data were compiled by Johns Hopkins University:
- Global cases: over 112.2 million
- Overall deaths: at least 2.48 million
- Cases in the USA: over 28.26 million
- US deaths: at least 502,681