COVID-19 Vaccine Update: Nearing 420,000 Doses Daily

An original version of this article was published by sister publication Contagion.

After averaging around 350,000 vaccines administered daily early in January, the US has increased vaccine administration in the last 7 days.

As of Monday, the United States has administered more than 6.6 million doses of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine to its population, per estimated counts from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and University of Oxford.

In the past week, discussions surrounding the novel strains of COVID-19 have increased, with an emphasis on whether or not the currently authorized vaccines will retain their efficacy. In a yet-to-be reviewed set of in vitro data from Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch, the BNT162b2 vaccine proved to be effective in preventing the mutated strains that are spreading across the globe. Other companies, most notably Moderna, have also expressed hopes that their vaccines will remain efficacious against the new variants.

Additionally, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently issued an alert that the SARS-CoV-2 mutations can potentially cause false negative results in COVID-19 tests. The tests impacted include MesaBiotech Accula, TaqPath COVID-19 Combo Kit, and Linea COVID-19 Assay Kit. The FDA stated that they will continue monitoring the variants to ensure the authorized tests keep providing accurate results.

Data TableData per Our World in Data (Jan 11, 2021, 12 AM EST)

While Texas, California and New York remain the most vaccinated, other states like North Carolina and Michigan have since broken into the top 10.

Data TableData per CDC COVID-19 Tracker (Jan 8, 2021, 9 AM EST)

For more information on COVID-19 vaccination research, distribution, and assessment, check out some of these recent Contagion stories:

What More COVID-19 Testing Can Do for 2021

WHO Provides Recommendations for Pfizer and BioNtech COVID-19 Vaccine

Most Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19 Show at Least 1 Symptom 6 Months Post Infection