US vaccinations exceed 50 million
The UK health minister believes Covid will be something people can “live with” by the end of the year
Patty Castillo, 46, receives a coronavirus vaccine at a drive-in center set up for port workers in Long Beach, California, on Saturday. (Reuters photo)
The United States has administered more than 50 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine in the two months since vaccine launch began, updated data showed on Saturday.
The 50.1 million injections administered in the United States represent 30% of the 168 million doses administered in 77 countries so far, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker.
In the UK, which along with the US has made the greatest progress in vaccinations among the major economies, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that he hoped the coronavirus would become a treatable disease, people would be able to “live with, as we do with flu ”until the end of the year.
He made the comment in an interview with Daily Telegraph, which said the British government is preparing to give details of new drugs that will be accelerated by the clinical testing system.
Meanwhile, the University of Oxford will begin testing the Covid vaccine developed with AstraZeneca in children, another potentially important step in ending the global pandemic.
The Oxford test plans to enroll 300 children aged 6 to 17, the university said on Saturday. The first vaccinations will take place this month, with up to 240 children receiving the vaccine against coronavirus and the remainder a vaccine against meningitis, which is expected to produce similar side effects. A larger study involving thousands of children is expected to be conducted by AstraZeneca in the United States later.
In the United States, 36.8 million people have already received at least one dose of a vaccine, and of those 12.8 million have been fully vaccinated with a second injection.
More than 1.7 million doses per day in the United States are being administered, based on an average of seven days, according to Bloomberg.
In a related development, President Joe Biden has ruled out the need for coronavirus testing for all passengers on flights for now, saying that scientific evidence does not support the implementation of the measure.
A White House statement said that the Centers for Disease Control did not recommend such tests and that Biden would follow his example.