More than one million people have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine in the United States, Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said Wednesday.
“The United States has reached an important but important stage today – jurisdictions have now reported that more than one million people have received their first dose of COVID-19 since administration began 10 days ago,” Redfield said.
In a call to reporters, Moncef Slaoui, the government’s chief adviser on Operation Warp Speed, said the goal of immunizing 20 million people this month was “unlikely to be met.”
However, he said the US is targeting another 100 million people immunized by the end of the first quarter of 2021 and another 100 million by the second quarter.
Three million doses were given last week in the United States, with the first licensed vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech on December 14.
This week, the goal was to distribute 6 million doses of vaccine this week by Moderna and another 2 million by Pfizer.
The USA is the most affected country in the world and is in the middle of an extreme winter wave.
More than 320,000 people have succumbed to the virus and it is likely to be the leading cause of death in 2020, behind heart disease and cancer.
© Agence France-Presse