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The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar said the administration of US President Donald Trump is expecting to distribute up to 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine by the end of 2020 and as many as 100 million doses by the end of February 2021. He said that the FDA will grant emergency-use authorization for the vaccine within days. The first Covid-19 vaccine shot may be given as soon as Monday. Azar said, “At this point, it is really a matter of working out some final details. Within the next couple of days, it ought to come out and we’ll start having Pfizer ship that vaccine to where governors have told us”. The news came after an advisory panel of FDA approved on Thursday to endorse the 95%-effective inoculation.

The move cleared the way for emergency authorization and distribution of coronavirus vaccinations. Point to be noted that front-line health care workers and residents at long-term care facilities are expected to be the first recipients of the vaccine after the director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield said last week to uphold the vote of an independent panel. Azar said, “I think it’s quite realistic by end of February into March, our governors will start doing more general vaccination efforts where you’re really going to your Kroger, your CVS, your Walgreens, and getting your COVID vaccine very much like you get your flu vaccine. The administration believes there will be enough vaccine for every American who wants to get vaccinated”.

It is noteworthy that Pfizer will use FedEx and UPS to drop its shipments of vaccinations to 636 sites across the country. The governors in each state selected more critical sites for the first phase of Covid-19 vaccine distribution. Azar also confirmed that the vaccinations could start happening as soon as Monday or Tuesday, Azar said. Pharmaceutical companies Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson are also in the final stages of development for their respective COVID-19 vaccines. The FDA is expected to approve Moderna’s later this month. Trump administration is also negotiating with 5 other pharmaceutical companies and 6 manufacturers for an estimated 800 million COVID-19 vaccine doses. Azar also said that Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca may start distributing a vaccine as soon as January 2021.