미 CDC도 화이자 백신 사용권고 수용…접종 행정절차 마무리
The Director of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has signed off on approving the use of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine,... allowing the use of the vaccine as early as Monday.
The U.S. hopes to have immunized 100 million Americans by March.
Lee Seung-jae reports.
The United States is on the brink of rolling out vaccines,... as U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield on Sunday,... signed off on Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine.
The approval allows inoculations to officially move forward for those aged 16 or older.
The CDC's decision comes a day after the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices,... an outside group of medical experts that advises the agency,... voted unanimously to recommend the vaccine.
The FDA gave the Pfizer vaccine emergency use authorization last Friday.
With the latest approval,... the CDC director noted that the first COVID-19 vaccinations are set to start as early as Monday.
Trucks containing the first packages of the vaccine began leaving Pfizer's facility in Michigan on Sunday,... with delivery expected across all 50 states by Monday.
The CDC noted that shots should first go to front-line heath-care workers and residents at long-term care facilities.
Speaking to Fox News Sunday,... U.S. Operation Warp Speed chief advisor Dr. Moncef Slaoui said the U.S. hopes to immunize 100 million Americans by the first quarter of 2021.
He added the U.S. hopes to have 40 million doses distributed by the end of December,... using Pfizer and Moderna,... which is expected to get emergency use authorization for its vaccine later this week.
Another 50 million to 80 million doses are due to be distributed by January,... with similar numbers in February.
According to Slaoui,... for the U.S. to get "herd immunity",... the country needs to immunize about 75 to 80 percent of its population,... a mark he hopes to reach by May or June 2021.
Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News.
