WASHINGTON, April 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States has administered 161,688,422 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Saturday morning and distributed 207,866,645 doses, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
The tally is for Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Johnson & Johnson’S vaccines as of 6:00am ET on Saturday, the agency said.
According to the tally posted on Apr 2, the agency had administered 157,606,463 doses of the vaccines, and distributed 204,719,335 doses.
The agency said 104,213,478 people had received at least one dose while 59,858,146 people are fully vaccinated as of Saturday.
A total of 7,738,792 vaccine doses have been administered in long-term care facilities, the agency said.
On another development, the United States has put Johnson and Johnson in charge of a plant that ruined 15 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine and has stopped British drugmaker AstraZeneca from using the facility, a senior health official said.
J&J said it was “assuming full responsibility” of the Emergent BioSolutions facility in Baltimore, reiterating that it will deliver 100 million doses to the government by the end of May.
The Department of Health & Human Services facilitated the move, the health official said in an email, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
AstraZeneca, whose vaccine has not been approved in the United States, said it will work with President Joe Biden’s administration to find an alternative site to produce its vaccine.
The development, first reported by the New York Times, further hampers AstraZeneca’s efforts in the United States. The government has criticised the drugmaker for using outdated data in the results of its vaccine trial. It later revised its study.
Workers at the Emergent BioSolutions plant several weeks ago conflated ingredients for the J&J and AstraZeneca vaccines, the Times said earlier in the week. J&J said at the time the ruined batch had not advanced to the fill-and-finish stage.
The government’s move to have the facility make only the J&J single-dose vaccine is meant to avoid future mix-ups, the Times said, citing two senior federal health officials.
The top US infectious disease doctor Dr Anthony Fauci said on Thursday the country may not need AstraZeneca’s vaccine even if it wins approval.
The United States has loan deals to send Mexico and Canada roughly 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, made at its US facility. — NNN-AGENCIES
