The first truckloads of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine were set to leave a Michigan manufacturing plant Sunday for distribution across the U.S., offering hope that a mass rollout will alleviate the strain on hospitals and medical staff.
The big picture: Coronavirus hospitalizations are soaring, and surging U.S. case numbers surpassed 16 million Saturday. Some 3 million vaccine doses are being distributed this week. Health care workers are being prioritized for inoculations. NIAID director Anthony Fauci stressed to Axios there's still a fair way to go, with 75%–80% of Americans needing to get vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.
Vail Health Hospital pharmacist Jessica Peterson places two boxes of mock COVID-19 vaccines into the hospital's ultra-cold freezer at the hospital on Dec. 8 in Vail, Colo. Photo: Getty Images
Workers test residents for COVID-19 and coronavirus antibodies at a mobile test site being run by Roseland Community Hospital on Dec. 12, in Chicago, Ill. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images
A St. Joseph Health clinical pharmacist opens a freezer at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital on Wednesday, Dec. 9, in Santa Rosa, Calif., which can hold 250,000 doses of the vaccine for COVID-19. Photo: Yalonda M. James/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
Health care workers carry signs in support of resident physicians, interns and fellows at UCLA Health as they protest for improved COVID-19 testing and workplace safety policies outside of UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, Calif., Dec. 9. Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
Medical staff members dance to a Christmas song at a nursing station in the COVID-19 intensive care unit at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, on Dec. 10. Photo: Go Nakamura/Getty Images
A nurse writes a note to communicate with staff outside the room of a COVID-19 positive patient at UMass Memorial Hospital in Worcester, Mass., on Dec. 4. Photo: Allison Dinner/AFP via Getty Images
Medics transfer a patient on a stretcher, Dec. 10, from an ambulance outside of emergency at Coral Gables Hospital, where coronavirus patients are treated in Coral Gables, Fla. Photo: Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images
A testing site in a parking lot at Bergen Community College run by Bergen County and the Bergen New Bridge Medical Center on Dec. 3 in Paramus, N.J. Photo: David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
Health care workers prepare COVID-19 tests to hand out to people who self-administer the tests at Long Beach City College-Veterans Memorial Stadium on Dec. 9 in Long Beach, Calif. Photo: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
A staff member holds a bag of appreciation gifts during a Christmas party at the Goodwin House senior living community center in Falls Church, Va., on Dec. 10. Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
Go deeper: Hospitals prepare to vaccinate workers
