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Coronavirus Watch: Still 'months' before everyone who wants a vaccine can get one

Grace Hauck   | Paste BN

It will still be "months" before everyone who wants a coronavirus vaccine will be able to get one, White House senior adviser Andy Slavitt said Wednesday in the first virtual briefing of the Biden administration's COVID-19 Task Force.

The U.S. has a deal in the works to purchase 200 million more vaccine doses from Pfizer and Moderna, which would give the U.S. a total of 600 million ordered doses of the two-shot vaccines. Biden said Tuesday that he expects the new supply to be fully delivered by mid-summer and for the majority of the population to be vaccinated by late summer or early fall.

The administration also plans to raise the minimum weekly supply of vaccines to states over the next three weeks by 16%, to 10 million.

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

  • Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the agency predicts 479,000 to 514,000 COVID-19 deaths will have been reported by Feb. 20. Almost 4,000 deaths and more than 140,000 new infections were reported yesterday alone. "Our case rates remain extraordinarily high, and now is the time to remain vigilant," she said Wednesday.
  • The B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the U.K. has been identified in 26 U.S. states, and one case of the P.1 variant first identified in Brazil has been reported in the U.S., Walensky said. Dr. Anthony Fauci reiterated Wednesday that the variants are "well within the cushion of protection" from vaccine.
  • The variants, however, are more problematic for antibody treatments. Fauci said Wednesday that the U.S. is working with companies to develop new antibody treatments that will be effective against newer strains.
  • Chicago Public Schools halted in-person learning Wednesday for about 3,200 pre-K and special education students who have been in classrooms for two weeks amid an impasse in negotiations between City Hall and the Chicago Teachers Union. 
  • Longtime NBA writer Sekou Smith, known for his basketball insight and friendly demeanor, died Tuesday of COVID-19. He was 48 years old.
  • January has already become the deadliest month of the pandemic in the U.S. On Tuesday, the U.S. reported 4,087 deaths from COVID-19 – the fourth-highest day in the history of the pandemic, a Paste BN analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. At this pace, January could end with about 94,500 reported deaths.

Today's numbers: The U.S. has reported more than 25.4 million COVID-19 cases and 426,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, there have been more than 100.4 million cases and more than 2.1 million deaths.

See the numbers in your area here, check out where cases are rising here, and see how many vaccines your state has received here.

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

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