As hospitalizations in the United States reached record highs and with intensive care unit (ICU) capacity under heavy pressure, Pfizer and BioNTech today announced an agreement with federal officials to supply 100 million more vaccine doses.
Full or nearly full ICUs
The number of hospitals with full or nearly full ICUs has doubled nationwide since the pandemic began, and currently, more than two in five US hospitals with ICUs have 85% or higher occupancy levels, according to a New York Times analysis of hospital data.
Meanwhile, the number of Americans currently hospitalized for COVID-19 reached a daily record of 117,777 yesterday, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
Surging COVID-19 levels in some of the nation's hot spots have overrun some health systems. In Tennessee, nearly 3,000 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, and facilities are frantically constructing new treatment units, though many of the alternative care sites the state set up months ago are empty, because there are no staff to run them, according to NPR.
In California, one of the nation's worst hot spots, Gov. Gavin Newsom has asked for more federal medical teams to help fill the need for healthcare workers in the state's hospitals, according to KQED. The state reported 32,659 new cases yesterday.
Texas hospitalizations have hit record levels, topping 10,200 for the first time since July, according to the Texas Tribune.
Vaccine developments
Pfizer and BioNTech announced today that they have signed a second agreement with the US government to supply 100 million more doses of the companies' COVID-19 vaccine, bringing the total to 200 million. In a statement, they said they expect to deliver the full order to Operation Warp Speed (OWS) by Jul 31, 2021.
Based on the original agreement announced in July, the government will pay $1.95 billion for the extra 100 million doses.
Earlier this month, the New York Times, citing unnamed sources familiar with the situation, reported that Pfizer officials initially offered OWS the opportunity to buy more than 100 million doses at first, but the Trump administration passed on the officer.
In an update on the rollout of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that, as of this morning, 9,465,725 doses have been distributed and 1,000,025 doses have been administered.
Among other US headlines:
- More than 2,900 healthcare workers have died in the pandemic since March, according to the latest analysis from Kaiser Health News and The Guardian.
- President Donald Trump last night pushed Congress to increase the $600 stimulus checks in the recently passed coronavirus relief package to $2,000, the Washington Post reported. Though Trump didn't threaten to veto the legislation, his objections threaten to unravel the $900 billion package that contains funding that public health departments need to run immunization campaigns and tackle other response actions.
- West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice told CNBC that his state's goal is to administer vaccines at all of its long-term care facilities by the end of the year.
- The United States reported 195,033 new cases yesterday, with 3,401 more deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins dashboard. The nation's total stands at 18,364,615 cases and 324,905 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker.
