Coronavirus: Over 1 million Americans vaccinated against COVID-19, says official

More than a million Americans have received the first dose of their COVID-19 vaccines, a senior official said on Wednesday.

More than a million people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine in the United States, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield said Wednesday.

"The United States achieved an early but important milestone today -- jurisdictions have now reported that more than one million people have received their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine since the administration began 10 days ago," said Redfield.
 

The CDC said just 1,008,025 shots had been administered as of 9 am ET on Wednesday. That’s roughly 19 million doses shy of earlier projections from public health officials for December. It leaves public officials less than two weeks — about 8 days — to try to close that gap.

If the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines proceeds smoothly, it might be possible to achieve widespread population immunity in the United States by next summer, top scientist Anthony Fauci has said.
 

Two vaccines – from Pfizer and Moderna – have been authorized for use by the Food and Drug Administration, and the US has shipped a total of 9,465,725 doses across the nation, according to CDC data.

The US is the world's hardest-hit country and is in the middle of an extreme winter surge. More than 325,000 people have succumbed to the virus, and it will likely be the leading cause of death in 2020 behind heart disease and cancer.