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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UK regulators say people with a history of serious allergic reactions shouldn't get Pfizer's COVID-19 shot

Authorities in the U.K. were investigating reports of two allergic reactions to the coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech -- a day after the country started its historic inoculation program.

Dr. June Raine, head of the UK regulatory body Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), said the agency was looking at two reports of allergic reactions to the vaccine, which rolled out yesterday.

"We know from the very extensive clinical trials that this wasn’t a feature but if we need to strengthen our advice... we get that advice to the field immediately,” said Raine.

The vaccine is believed to be both safe and 95% effective, according to Pfizer/BioNTech. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration was set to hold a hearing for emergency use of the drug on Thursday.

“There have been two cases of anaphylactoid reactions in individuals with a strong past history of allergic reactions both of whom carried an adrenaline auto injector,” the National Health Service (NHS) said in a statement on Wednesday. “These individuals developed symptoms of anaphylactoid reaction shortly after receiving the vaccine. Both recovered after appropriate treatment. We are seeking further information and will issue further advice following investigation.”

Pfizer/BioNTech have not yet commented on these latest findings.

Professor Stephen Powis, national Medical Director for the NHS, said: “As is common with new vaccines the MHRA have advised on a precautionary basis that people with a significant history of allergic reactions do not receive this vaccination after two people with a history of significant allergic reactions responded adversely yesterday. Both are recovering well.”


Russia reports over 26,000 new cases in the past day

Russia registered 26,190 new coronavirus infections and 559 fatalities linked with the virus over the past 24 hours, officials said on Wednesday.

In Moscow, 5,145 new infections and 75 fatalities have been confirmed over the same time, according to official information.

The all-time high of 29,000 new cases was registered just last weekend but since then the number has been declining.

Since the start of the pandemic, Russia has confirmed 2,541,199 coronavirus infections and 44,718 deaths, officials have said.

ABC News' Alina Lobzina contributed to this report.


Nikki Haley says sister-in-law has died from COVID

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has announced on Twitter that her sister-in-law Rhonda Lee Nelson has died from COVID-19.

Nelson, 53, who passed away on Nov. 25, resided in West Milton, Ohio, according to the Associated Press, and was a singer and piano musician who "ministered to many inside and outside of the church."

“Today we said goodbye to Michael’s sister, Rhonda, who passed the day before Thanksgiving of Covid. She ministered to many inside and outside of the church. She loved God, her family & all who knew her. She will be missed,” Haley said in her tweet.

No other details were provided regarding Nelson’s death but the seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in the state of Ohio has been on the rise in recent weeks, according to the Associated Press, and one in every 193 people in the state have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in just the past week alone.


Ravens receiver tests positive before gametime

Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Dez Bryant tweeted he would not be playing Tuesday after he tested positive for the coronavirus minutes before kickoff against the Dallas Cowboys.

Bryant said he was warming up with the team on the field -- with a mask on -- when he was pulled off by team officials for further testing.

Fox Sports reported an earlier COVID-19 test came back inconclusive and had to be retested.

Bryant reacted angrily on social media, as the former long-time Cowboys player had been looking forward to facing his former team. He tweeted he had the same routine and the positive test made no sense to him, before saying he was going to call it quits for the rest of the season.

Two weeks ago, the Ravens experienced a coronavirus outbreak among players and staff. Twenty-three players and staff were put on the COVID-19 list, including reigning MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson.

The team had to postpone its Thanksgiving Day against the Pittsburgh Steelers three times. It also prompted this week's game to be pushed back to Tuesday.


Operation Warp Speed chief says he doesn't know what executive order Trump is signing

The chief science adviser to Operation Warp Speed, the U.S. government's initiative to expedite vaccine development, said he doesn't know what vaccine-related executive order President Donald Trump is expected to sign on Tuesday.

"Frankly, I don't know and, frankly, I'm staying out of this. I can't comment," Dr. Moncef Slaoui told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos in an interview Tuesday on "Good Morning America."

When pressed on the matter, Slaoui added: "Our work is, you know, rolling. We have plans. We feel that we can deliver the vaccines as needed, so I don't exactly [know] what this order is about."

Trump is expected to discuss the order at a COVID-19 vaccine summit to be held at the White House later Tuesday, multiple White House officials told reporters during a background briefing on Monday evening. While it's not entirely clear on how exactly the order would work, the move is designed to prevent the U.S. government from shipping any vaccine doses it has purchased to aid foreign countries until all the needs within the United States are met.

White House officials also denied reports that the Trump administration turned down an offer last summer to purchase an additional 400 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, and that the companies now may not be able to provide more of their vaccine to the United States until June 2021 because they have committed those doses to other countries.

When asked about the matter, Slaoui explained Operation Warp Speed's strategy in securing vaccine doses.

"We selected six different vaccines to build a portfolio to manage the risk that some may work and some may not work, but also to ensure that as more than one would work that we would accumulate vaccine doses from this portfolio of vaccines," he said. "If somebody came to us and said, let's buy more of this vaccine or that vaccine, no one reasonably would buy more from any one of those vaccines because we didn't know which one would work and which one may be better than the other. Once the vaccine's performance becomes known is the right time, given the strategy we've taken, to go and order more vaccine doses, which we may be doing. And frankly, the constructive thing to do if one of the suppliers has challenges producing enough vaccine doses is to roll our sleeves and help ensure that capacity can be increased."

Slaoui said he's confident the U.S. government will be getting vaccines to Americans who need them "as soon as possible" and that plans are "still on track."

"We will work with Pfizer to try and increase capacity and have those vaccines available," he said. "We have two more vaccines from J&J and AstraZeneca that will be completing their Phase 3 trials in January and most likely, I hope, be approved for use in February. We have tens of millions of doses from those vaccines, you know, participating to the volume of vaccines we need to immunize the U.S. population as we promised, all of it by the middle of the year 2021 and that's still on track."

Slaoui said Operation Warp Speed has a meeting with President-elect Joe Biden's transition team scheduled for Thursday.

"We look forward to, you know, sharing all the information and working together," he said. "Our objective has always been outside of politics and making sure we make available these vaccines for the U.S. people, and that's what we're doing."

ABC News' Ben Gittleson, John Parkinson and Eric Strauss contributed to this report.