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- Dr. Fauci expects COVID-19 vaccines to be available to the general population ‘somewhere March-ish’
- Vice President Mike Pence receives COVID-19 vaccine on live TV
- U.S. hospitalizations from COVID-19 rise to a 12th-straight daily record
The new case count and death toll in the U.S. from COVID-19 edged lower slightly, but that wasn’t a reason to celebrate as more than 3,000 people died for a third day in a row, and new cases stayed above 200,000 for a fourth-straight day.
The grim tallies were in contrast to any feelings of confidence and comfort, as a second vaccine looked very likely to be rolled out this weekend and vaccinations are anticipated to begin on Monday.
Late Thursday, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted 20-0, with 1 abstention, that the benefits of Moderna Inc.’s MRNA, -2.58% mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine candidate outweigh the risks, which makes it likely the FDA will grant emergency use authorization (EUA).
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on NBC’s “Today” show that he expects the Moderna vaccine to be administered “by the very early part of next week,” with hopes for Monday or Tuesday.
When asked when he expected vaccines to be widely available to the general population, Dr. Fauci said: “That likely will be somewhere March-ish. I said March/April, February/March, it’s going to be a close call on that.”
In the meantime, Vice President Mike Pence received Pfizer Inc.’s PFE, -1.08% and BioNTech SE’s BNTX, -2.24% vaccine on live television Friday, in hopes that it will be “a source of confidence and comfort” to the American people, many remain skeptical about getting the shot, as MarketWatch’s Greg Robb reported.
There were 238,189 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, down from 245,033 on Wednesday, according to data provided by the New York Times. The daily death toll slipped to 3,293, from a record 3,611 deaths on Wednesday. That follows a death count of 3,025 on Tuesday.
The daily average of new cases over the past week rose to 213,165 from 211,008 on Wednesday, and was 18% above the daily average two weeks earlier.
Overall, the U.S. has recorded 17,233,022 COVID-19 cases as of midday Friday, and 311,010 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Hospitalizations set a record for a 12th-straight day, rising to 114,237 on Thursday from 113,090 on Wednesday, according to The COVID Tracking Project.
There were 48 states that had positivity rates for COVID-19 tests of more than 5.0%, which the World Health Organization deemed a dangerous threshold, according to JHU data. The states with the highest positivity rates were Idaho at 48.5% and South Dakota at 41.7%, while Hawaii at 2.9% and Vermont at 2.3% were the only states with rates below 5.0%.
Global tallies
The number of global confirmed cases of COVID-19 grew to 75,155,123 as of midday Friday, according to JHU data, and the death toll reached 1,665,974. At least 42.5 million people have recovered.
The U.S. was by far the world leader as it accounted for 22.9% of the cases and 18.7% of the deaths.
Brazil had the second most deaths at 184,827 and third most cases at 7,110,434, while India was second in cases at 9,979,447 and third in deaths at 144,789.
Mexico was fourth in deaths at 116,487 and 13th in cases at 1,289,298.
Italy had the fifth most deaths globally, and the most in Europe, at 67,220, and was eighth globally in cases at 1,906,377. The U.K. was sixth with a death toll of 66,150, and was seventh in cases at 1,954,311.
Russia was fourth globally, and led Europe with 2,764,843 cases, and rose to ninth in deaths at 49,170. Germany was 14th in deaths at 25,235, and was 12th in cases at 1,461,072.
China, where the virus was first discovered late last year, has had 94,804 confirmed cases and 4,762 deaths
