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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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
UK prepares for Tuesday's rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations
Doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech have been delivered across the United Kingdom, ahead of the launch of the country's immunization program.
The potentially life-saving vaccine will be administered nationwide starting Tuesday morning, and some 800,000 doses were expected to be in place for the first day of what will be the largest-scale immunization program in U.K. history.
Vaccinations will be rolled out in phases, with elderly care home residents and their carers first on the priority list, followed by anyone else aged 80 and over, as well as frontline health and social care workers.
Last week, the U.K. became the first country in the world to authorize the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for emergency use. The vaccine was shown in late-stage clinical trials to be more than 95% effective in preventing COVID-19.