For First Time in Weeks, Most States See Increase in Cases

But Johnson & Johnson vaccine is already rolling out in trucks
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 1, 2021 1:37 PM CST
Newest Vaccine Could Be in Arms on Tuesday
An employee with the McKesson Corporation packs a box of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine into a cooler for shipping from their facility in Shepherdsville, Ky., Monday, March 1, 2021.   (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, Pool)

The newly approved single-shot vaccine from Johnson & Johnson could be in people's arms as soon as Tuesday, reports the Wall Street Journal. FedEx trucks have picked up the first shipments in Mississippi and started moving across the country. The company expects to deliver 20 million shots before the end of March, though most of those are expected to arrive later in the month. The message from health officials to people wondering which of the three vaccines available in the US is best: the first one available. "All three of them are really quite good," says Dr. Anthony Fauci. Elsewhere:

  • Good trend: The number of vaccinations being doled out daily is rising, surpassing 2.3 million on both Saturday and Sunday, reports the New York Times. That puts a goal of 3 million per day by the end of March within reach.

  • Bad trend: Sunday was the first day in more than a month that most states reported an increase in new cases, reports USA Today. That continues a trend from last week and has the CDC director "deeply concerned" because states continue to roll back restrictions. "We cannot be resigned to 70,000 cases per day, 2,000 daily deaths," says Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the health agency. "We stand to lose the hard-earned ground we have gained."
  • COVAX: Ivory Coast became the first country on Monday to begin inoculating residents with doses received through the international COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative, which Reuters sees as a milestone for poorer countries. Ghana will start its inoculations Tuesday. The initiative, led by the GAVI vaccine alliance and the World Health Organization, aims to distribute 1.3 billion doses to low- and middle-income nations.
  • Another positive: The BBC has more results backing up the notion that current vaccines are effective at preventing the worst outcomes of the disease. A single shot of either the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine or the Pfizer vaccine has reduced the chance of needing hospital treatment by more than 80% in Britain.
(More coronavirus vaccine stories.)

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