People over 75, front-line essential workers should get vaccine next, CDC panel says
Those groups would cover teachers and critical workers in high-risk settings.
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 75.5 million people worldwide and killed over 1.6 million of them, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Latest headlines:
- Congress reaches deal on COVID relief package
- CDC committee: People over 75, front-line essential workers should get vaccine next
- McKesson begins distributing Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine
- First Moderna vaccinations likely Monday, Azar says
- New London lockdown announced in face of more virulent COVID-19 strain
- US sees record-high number of coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, deaths
20 million Americans to get 1st vaccine dose by end of December, HHS secretary says
Twenty million Americans should be able to get the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of December, and another 30 million by the end of January, Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services, said during a Monday news briefing. By the end of March, 100 million people are projected to receive a first dose.
Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operating officer for Operation Warp Speed, said that long-term care facilities in four states would work in tandem with CVS and Walgreens to start vaccinating patients and staff this weekend. An estimated 1,100 long-term care and nursing home facilities will begin vaccination next Monday.
ABC News' Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
Texas hospital gives its 1st COVID-19 vaccine to worker who cleans emergency room
A hospital in Texas gave its first COVID-19 vaccine Monday morning to an environmental services worker, Teresa Mata, 51, who cleans the emergency room.
Methodist Dallas Medical Center is one of four Texas hospitals receiving vaccine shipments Monday. The initial shipment will allow the hospital to give the first dose of the two-part vaccine to 5,000 of its front-line employees.
ABC News' Jim Scholz contributed to this report.
2nd health worker vaccinated in NY lost family member to COVID-19
Dr. Yves Duroseau, head of emergency medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital, became the second health care worker to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine Monday in New York.
"I'm very thankful for this moment," Duroseau told reporters. "This is a hopeful day."
Duroseau encouraged Americans, especially those in high-risk communities, to get the vaccine when it's available to them.
"I saw a lot of devastation. I saw it personally in my family," he said. In addition to a family member who is currently hospitalized, Duroseau had a "dear uncle" die of COVID-19.
"It is very important to not fear the vaccination," he added. "We cannot continue to have 3,000 people die a day."
Until the vaccine is more widely available, it's crucial for Americans to continue social distancing, especially over the holidays. "We have to resist the temptations to gather," Duroseau said.
Critical care nurse becomes 1st New Yorker, possibly 1st American, to receive vaccine
Sandra Lindsay, a critical care nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York City, became the first person in the state of New York to be vaccinated against COVID-19 outside of a clinical trial.
Lindsay was administered the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on live television. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said she is also likely the first to receive the shot in the United States since the vaccine was approved for emergency use.