In early February, 57 people arrived at a Nebraska military base, among the first Americans evacuated from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the new coronavirus outbreak. U.S. health officials knew very little then about the mysterious new virus, and the quarantined group offered an early opportunity to size up the threat.
Walmart Inc said it is preparing to offer COVID-19 vaccinations in seven more states, as well as in Chicago and Puerto Rico, this week and next, expanding beyond the two states where its pharmacists are offering inoculations.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had administered 19,107,959 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Friday morning and distributed 39,892,400 doses.
U.S. President Joe Biden's decision to join the COVAX vaccine facility could make a "huge difference" to the financing of the scheme, intended to deliver coronavirus vaccines to poor countries, a diplomat with a lead role in COVAX said on Friday.
Groups representing the U.S. travel industry and airlines on Friday voiced opposition to mandatory quarantines for air passengers arriving in the United States from overseas a day after President Joe Biden signed an order to take that step.
Severe allergic reactions to Moderna Inc's coronavirus vaccine appear to be quite rare, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday, after over 4 million people had received their first dose.
AstraZeneca told European Union officials on Friday that it would cut deliveries of its COVID-19 vaccine to the bloc by 60% to 31 million doses in the first quarter of the year due to production problems, a senior official told Reuters.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday the new English variant of COVID-19 may be associated with a higher level of mortality although he said evidence showed that both vaccines being used in the country are effective against it.
A variant of the novel coronavirus already accounts for about half of new infections in the Brazilian Amazonian city of Manaus, raising concerns about a greater risk of spread, a researcher warned on Friday.
Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now: