WASHINGTON: US President-elect Joe Biden and wife Jill will be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus publicly on Monday, his transition team announced. The announcement was made on Friday night by Jen Psaki, the Biden administration’s White House Press Secretary, The Hill news website reported.
According to the team, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will receive her vaccine next we ek. The announcement came the same day that a number of high-ranking US officials were vaccinated against the disease.
On Friday morning, Vice President Mike Pence, Second Lady Karen Pence and Surgeon General Jerome Adams also received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination on live TV, in a bid to instill confidence among Americans.
Later in the day, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were vaccinated by attending physician Brian Monahan at the Capitol.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is now being administered to millions of healthcare workers and in nursing homes, which have borne the maximum burden of the US outbreak. For Moderna, the US FDA approval is a world first. For Pfizer, the US approval came after the UK and Canada authorised nationwide use.
The US government has ordered at least 200 million Moderna doses at a time when the country is getting hammered by the pandemic winter surge. Deaths in the US are at record highs, crossing 3,000 per day at a steady clip. As of Saturday morning, the virus, which originated in China a year ago, has infected a total of 17,442,180 Americans and killed 313,246 others, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
The two tallies are the highest in the world, making the US the hardest-hit country by the pandemic.
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