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.
Latest headlines:
Mexico approves emergency use of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine
Mexico approved emergency use of Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine on Friday.
The announcement came shortly before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that it had authorized Pfizer's vaccine. Mexico has recorded over 1.2 million cases and 113,000 deaths -- fourth-most globally behind the U.S., Brazil and India.
The United Kingdom, Bahrain and Canada have also authorized the vaccine.
FDA authorizes Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for emergency use
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use.
President Donald Trump announced the news on Twitter.
The move comes a day after the FDA's advisory committee recommended that the U.S. government authorize the nation's first COVID-19 vaccine for people over the age of 16.
The first vaccine will be administered in less than 24 hours, Trump said Friday night.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told "Good Morning America" Friday morning that up to 20 million Americans will be vaccinated this month.
US sees record-breaking cases, current hospitalizations
The U.S. broke records in new COVID-19 cases and current hospitalizations on Friday, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
There were 232,105 new cases, and 108,044 people are currently hospitalized with the virus, the project reported.
The seven-day average for new COVID-19 cases, deaths and current hospitalizations also reached new highs on Friday, it found.
Nevada, South Dakota and Arizona now lead the nation in current hospitalized patients per million people, according to the tracker.
New cases, deaths continue to increase week-over-week, HHS memo shows
After a slowdown in reporting and testing over the Thanksgiving holiday, week-over-week COVID-19 numbers continue to show dramatic increases in new cases and deaths, according to an internal U.S. Department of Health and Human Services memo obtained by ABC News Friday night.
From Dec. 5 to 11, there was an 18.1% increase in new cases and a 26.9% increase in new deaths compared with the previous week, the memo said.
Across the country, 31% of hospitals have more than 80% of their intensive care unit beds filled, and 31% of ventilators in use are occupied by COVID-19 patients, HHS said. Additionally, 21% of inpatients have COVID-19, nearing the all-time peak of 24%.
Cases are sharply rising in Alaska, California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and Utah, the memo noted. Maryland, South Dakota and Wyoming have also seen a surge in COVID-19 fatality rates.
-ABC News' Josh Margolin
Ordinary New Yorkers may get vaccines by early April: Fauci
On Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci painted a grim future for the United States if Americans don't adhere to public health measures during the holidays. "Without substantial mitigation, the middle of January can be a really dark time for us," Fauci said during a news conference held by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Americans need to keep social distancing until 75% to 80% of the population can get the COVID-19 vaccine, which would provide an umbrella of community-level protection, Fauci explained. "By the time you get to the beginning of April, you’ll start getting people who have no high priority, just the normal man and woman, New Yorker in the street who's well, has no underlying conditions [getting the vaccine]," he added.
As of Monday, New York State's testing positivity rate was 4.7%, according to Cuomo. The governor estimated that more than 70% of infections spreading in the state were connected to small gatherings.
-ABC News' Rachel Katz contributed to this report.