New York
A nurse in New York became the first person in the United States to receive the coronavirus vaccine on Monday. Sandra Lindsay, a critical care nurse at the Long Island Jewish Medical Centre, received the shot live on television.
“First Vaccine Administered. Congratulations USA! Congratulations WORLD!” President Donald Trump tweeted. The largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history is now underway as health care workers start receiving the Covid-19 vaccine.
It was earlier reported that delivery trucks with special refrigeration equipment rolled out of a facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Sunday as part of a public-private plan to ship millions of doses of the newly approved Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine to vulnerable Americans. Courier services FedEx and UPS have deployed fleets of trucks and planes to carry their precious cargo — sometimes under armed guard — to all 50 states, where healthcare workers and nursing-home residents will be first in line.
‘Vaccines are shipped and on their way,’ President Donald Trump tweeted. ‘Get well USA. Get well WORLD.’ One state governor, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, said that ‘we now believe that the first individuals will be vaccinated’ on Monday — less than 72 hours after the vaccine received emergency authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration.
As the mobilization unfolds, an initial 2.9 million doses are set to be delivered by Wednesday, with officials saying 20 million Americans could receive the two-shot regimen by year end, and 100 million by March. But the breakthrough comes at one of the darkest moments of the pandemic, with infections in the United States and many other countries soaring, and health experts still struggling against vaccine skepticism, lockdown fatigue and uneven adherence to safety rules.
The US has the world’s highest death toll of more than 299,000, and the largest number of cases, at 16.2 million — including more than 1.5 million new cases in just the past week. Worldwide, there have been at least 1.6 million deaths since the outbreak emerged in China last December, and 71.6 million cases overall.
The start of vaccination campaigns this week in the US — and also Canada — came as Germany announced a partial lockdown from Wednesday, with non-essential shops and schools to close in a bid to halt an ‘exponential growth’ in infections.
The restrictions, agreed by Chancellor Angela Merkel and regional leaders, will apply through the holidays until January 10.
Europe’s biggest economy has been severely hit by a resurgence of the coronavirus, with daily new infections more than three times their springtime peak. Daily death tolls last week approached 600. Germany’s hardest-hit states had already ordered new measures. Saxony state, where in some areas incidence rates have hit 500 per 100,000 people, will shutter shops and schools from Monday.
Italy, meanwhile, overtook Britain as the European nation with the highest death toll. ‘I am worried about the two weeks of Christmas holidays… The battle still has not been won,’ Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza warned as the country recorded 64,520 deaths, surpassing Britain’s 64,267. —Agencies
