The bottles for the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are ready to be prepared before a mass vaccination site opens in Queens District, New York, February 24, 2021.
Seth Little | Swimming pool | Reuters
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Tuesday that his company has accelerated production of its vaccine with two coronavirus vaccines and will be able to deliver a total of 300 million doses to the United States ahead of schedule.
Bourla said on Twitter that Pfizer could deliver 10 percent more doses to the United States by the end of May than it had previously agreed to produce – up to 220 million from 200 million.
The company will be able to provide a full 300 million, which it had agreed to deliver to the United States by the end of July, two weeks earlier, Bourla said.
“In the fight against COVID-19, we are together in this,” he wrote on Twitter.
The announcement came as dozens of states temporarily stopped administering the Johnson & Johnson single-dose Covid vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration advised them on Tuesday to do so after six U.S. women developed a rare blood clotting disorder that left one woman dead and another in critical condition.
Some states, such as New York, have said they will use the Pfizer vaccine instead of the J&J shot for meetings that have already been scheduled.