Coronavirus Watch: More than 2M in US have received vaccine

U.S. officials said earlier this month that there would be 20 million coronavirus vaccinations in arms by the end of the year. But so far, the numbers are far below expectations.

More than 2 million people have received the first shot, and fewer than 12 million doses have been distributed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, told CNN on Tuesday he still hopes that by spring or summer "anybody and everybody who wants to be vaccinated can be vaccinated."

It's Tuesday, and this is the Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network. Here's more news that you need to know:

• Stimulus checks: The House on Monday voted to increase COVID-19 relief stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000, as President Donald Trump demanded when he signed the relief package into law Sunday. The measure will now head to the Senate where its future remains uncertain. It's not clear when the first checks will go out, but the bill specifies that checks must be sent no later than Jan. 15.
• World stocks rose Tuesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 benchmark hitting a 30-year high after Trump signed a $900 billion economic aid package.
• Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, received their first doses of COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, live on camera.
• California's stay-at-home order is expected to be extended on Tuesday for another three weeks, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday.
• With many testing centers closed for the holidays, the U.S. conducted 1.5 million fewer COVID-19 tests in the week ending Monday than it did in the previous week, a Paste BN analysis of COVID Tracking Project data shows. In all, 42 states reported less testing.

Today's numbers: December has been the deadliest month for COVID-19 in the U.S.,  which has reported over 19.3 million cases and 335,000 deaths as of Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, there have been over 81.4 million cases and nearly 1.8 million deaths. See the numbers in your area here, and check out where cases are rising here.

– Grace Hauck, Paste BN breaking news reporter, @grace_hauck