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 The vaccinations, carried out under a program led by Walgreens Boots
Alliance Inc and CVS Health Corp, are the latest effort to rein in a
pandemic that has killed more than 317,000 Americans and strained
healthcare systems.
California, an epicenter in the latest surge in infections, had no
more intensive care unit beds available in the heavily populated Los
Angeles area or in the state's San Joaquin Valley agricultural hub,
Governor Gavin Newsom said on Monday.
Newsom said California had so far not seen any cases of the highly
infectious new strain of the virus that has emerged in Britain,
prompting dozens of countries to close their borders to the UK.
The United States has not imposed travel restrictions from Britain
in the face of the mutant strain. Three airlines, acting at the
request of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, have agreed to screen
passengers flying into John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized emergency use
of two COVID-19 vaccines, one developed by Pfizer Inc and German
partner BioNTech SE and the second from Moderna Inc.
Some 2.9 million shots of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine were
distributed last week, mostly to healthcare workers, with more than
500,000 people inoculated as of Sunday afternoon. The first Moderna
injections were administered on Monday.
VACCINATIONS ON CHRISTMAS
About 7.9 million doses of the two shots are being distributed
nationwide this week, including on Christmas Day if necessary, said
U.S. Army General Gustave Perna, who oversees vaccine distribution
through the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed program.
More than 1,300 long-term care facilities were expected to begin
vaccinations on Monday, Perna told a news conference.
About 50 million people in the United States will have had the first
of two shots needed for immunization by the end of January, U.S.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said.
President-elect Joe Biden became one of them on Monday, at a
hospital in Newark, Delaware. He received his shot on camera in an
effort to boost confidence in its safety. Biden's age, 78, places
him in a high-risk category for the highly contagious respiratory
disease.
With supplies limited, many states have put healthcare workers and
nursing home residents first in line for vaccinations, in keeping
with recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC).
Older people in nursing homes have accounted for a disproportionate
number of COVID-19 deaths.
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 The U.S. death toll has
accelerated in recent weeks to 2,627 per day on
a seven-day average, according to a Reuters
tally. The University of
Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has said
that U.S. COVID-19 deaths will peak in January, when its widely
cited model projects that more than 100,000 people will die. The
model predicts 562,000 deaths by April 1.
HOLIDAY SURGE
Air travel rose over the weekend as Americans visited family members
for Christmas in defiance of political leaders who urged them to
stay home. More than 1 million people traveled through U.S. airports
on each of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the most since Nov. 29,
according to the Transportation Security Administration.
Health experts say the latest surge in U.S. hospitalizations and
deaths was driven by Thanksgiving gatherings last month.
Nationwide, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients stood at
nearly 113,400 on Monday after setting a record high of over 114,200
on Friday, according to the Reuters tally.
Walgreens and CVS, in partnership with the federal government, hope
to vaccinate some 7 million people in more than 70,000 long-term
care facilities. The companies began inoculating some residents with
Pfizer's vaccine last week, but their full rollout began on Monday.
Moderna's vaccine is seen as easier to distribute to hard-to-reach
rural areas because it does not need to be kept at the ultra-cold
temperature required by the Pfizer/BioNTech shot.
Both vaccines were about 95% effective at preventing illness in
large clinical trials.
Walgreens said it planned to vaccinate about 3 million residents and
staff at 35,000 long-term care facilities over the coming weeks,
while CVS plans to vaccinate around 4 million residents and staff at
over 40,000 such facilities.
On Sunday, outside advisers to the CDC recommended that 30 million
frontline essential workers should be the next group to receive
priority for vaccination, including first responders, teachers,
public transit staff and grocery store workers.
(Reporting by Carl O'Donnell, Richa Naidu, Michael Erman, Peter
Szekely, Lisa Baertlein, Sharon Bernstein and Dan Whitcomb; Editing
by Bill Berkrot and Peter Cooney)
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