Coronavirus: US $ 1 Million Purchase of Pfizer and Moderna Vaccines Announced

WASHINGTON.- The United States has concluded two purchase agreements 200 million additional doses against Covid-19, as announced this Thursday by the president Joe biden, with which the country has increased by 50% the already abundant stock with which it hopes to finally dominate the chain of infections.

“This afternoon, we signed the final contracts for 100 million additional doses from Moderna laboratory and 100 million additional vaccines from Pfizer“Biden said after visiting the National Institutes of Health (NIH) headquarters near Washington.

“We are now on track to have enough supplies to (vaccinate) 300 million Americans by the end of July,” he added.

The vaccination campaign started precariously in December, but has since improved: at least 34.7 million people have already received one of the two doses of vaccination, or about 10% of the population. In total, 46.3 million doses have already been applied and 68.2 million doses have already been dispensed, according to official figures.

The vaccination campaign entered a new phase on Thursday with the participation of thousands of pharmacies. The government has ordered one million doses to be sent to some 6,500 pharmacies and supermarket pharmacies across the country, and several chains have announced that they will begin administering the first injections tomorrow.

The federal government has also used emergency legislation to increase vaccine production, opened huge stadium vaccination sites, and launched a separate program to reach underserved communities.

However, the country worst affected by the pandemic in the world – with more than 27.29 million infections – is expected to reach half a million deaths by the end of this month.

Amid widespread confusion about where and when to get vaccinated, stark racial and economic disparities have also emerged.

In the capital Washington vaccines were disproportionately allocated to residents of white and affluent neighborhoods, where people registered faster by phone or online.

Vaccine rejection is also significantly higher among blacks and Latin Americans, who are twice as likely to die from Covid-19 due to structural racism in the medical system.

Agencia AFP

AFP

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