Coronavirus updates: 1st vaccines now on the way to all 50 US states
Two main trucks left the Pfizer facility on Sunday morning, the company said.
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 71.5 million people and killed over 1.6 million worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
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Another record-breaking day for LA County
Los Angeles County reported a new high for COVID-19 cases on Friday, topping the record set the day before.
There were 13,815 new cases reported on Friday, surpassing Thursday's record by nearly 1,000.
Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer attributed the surge to Thanksgiving gatherings.
"The impact of these Thanksgiving surges of cases, on top of already rising cases, is creating extraordinary stress," she said at a briefing. "Should this be followed by another surge related to the winter holiday, the numbers of hospitalizations and patients in the ICU could become catastrophic."
There are 3,624 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19. In two weeks, that could be over 7,300 people, Ferrer warned, if the average number of cases and hospitalizations continue to climb.
-ABC News' Bonnie Mclean and Cammeron Parrish contributed to this report
HHS buys another 100 million doses of Moderna vaccine
The Department of Health and Human Services said it’s buying another 100 million doses of Moderna's vaccine candidate, which is scheduled for review by the FDA advisory committee next Thursday.
The federal government will now own a total 200 million doses of the Moderna vaccine.
ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs contributed to this report.
White House suggests FDA chief's job on line if vaccine isn't authorized by end of day
In a Friday phone call, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows suggested to FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn that his job could be on the line if his agency doesn't authorize emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by the end of the day, sources familiar with the matter said.
"We don’t comment on private conversations, but the chief regularly requests updates on progress toward a vaccine," a White House official told ABC News.
Vaccine authorization by the FDA is expected imminently, as early as today.
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders and John Santucci contributed to this report.
Fauci says he’ll get vaccinated publicly
Dr. Anthony Fauci told The New York Times that he'll “get vaccinated publicly, in the public space, so that people can see me getting vaccinated,” as soon as “the vaccine becomes available to me.”
Former Presidents Barack Obama, George Bush and Bill Clinton have all offered to get vaccinated on camera.
The Food and Drug Administration as early as today could authorize emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
'My colleagues are dog-tired,' US surgeon general says in plea to Americans
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams urged people to take the coronavirus pandemic seriously and follow public health guidelines as infections and hospitalizations soar across the country.
"I want the American people to know this virus is incredibly unforgiving, cases are going up, hospitalizations are going up, my colleagues are dog-tired and we need you to hang on just a little bit longer because we've got vaccines coming but we want as many people to be alive to get them as possible and a lot of that is going to depend on your behavior," Adams told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos in an interview Monday on "Good Morning America."
Although "more people than ever are wearing masks," Adams said he's "very" concerned by the number of people who still "don't understand how much spread is occurring by people who don't have symptoms."
About 20 million "full doses" of COVID-19 vaccines will be available by the end of the year, according to Adams, who urged every American to be immunized against the virus as soon as a vaccine is authorized and made available.
"It's a way that we can ultimately end this pandemic, but it doesn't matter if people won't get the vaccination," the surgeon general said. "We know that vaccine levels are only about 50% for adults for flu and they go down to about 40% for African-Americans."
Adams said he is working with historically black colleges and universities as well as faith communities to bolster vaccine confidence among all populations. The White House is also hosting a vaccine summit Tuesday, he said.
"One thing you can all do right now, it's national flu immunization week, get your flu shot because half a million people were hospitalized last year with the flu," Adams said. "We simply can't afford for that to happen this year with hospitals being overwhelmed."
The surgeon general said the current surge in infections across the country "is different than earlier surges," because it's not about a lack of masks or personal protective equipment, nor is it due to a lack of testing.
"It's really about health care capacity, and certain places are just being overwhelmed," he said. "So we know that we can actually help them with their health care capacity by immunizing their health care staff. We're going to leave it up to the states, but we're going to give them guidance."
Adams noted it's also important to vaccinate those who are most likely to die from COVID-19.
"We know that 40 to 50% of the deaths are occurring in people who are in longterm care facilities who are older," he said.