First trucks with Covid-19 vaccine roll out of Pfizer plant in Michigan

Washington [US], December 13 : Trucks with the first batches of the company's long-awaited Covid-19 vaccine departed the Pfizer plant in Portage, Michigan, on Sunday morning to 636 predetermined locations.
Pfizer is expected to deliver an estimated 2.9 million doses this week via UPS and FedEx, Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed, said on Saturday, NBC reported.
The vaccines leaving Portage -- a city just south of Kalamazoo -- have US Marshal protection to ensure they arrive safely at the hospital systems selected to receive the doses, some as early as Monday.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said the company was leveraging manufacturing plants in Michigan, Missouri and Massachusetts to produce and distribute the vaccines quickly.
"I couldn't be prouder of my fellow Pfizer colleagues and partners at BioNTech," Bourla said in a video statement. "Their historic science-driven effort has delivered a vaccine with the potential to help bring an end to the most devastating pandemic in a century."
On Friday, the US Food and Drug Administration authorised Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine for emergency use for the prevention of coronavirus disease in individuals 16 years of age and older. "We are having this mass casualty event every day here in the US.
But now we have this vaccine developed in record time that can, in time, really save us and save our country and save the world from this awful pandemic," emergency physician Dr Leana Wen told CNN's Chris Cuomo moments after the authorization. "This is really a monumental moment for us," she added.
The US is the sixth country -- after the UK, Bahrain, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico -- to clear the vaccine. Other authorizations, including by the European Union, are expected within weeks.
According to the latest update by the Johns Hopkins University, the United States hit a record 16 million Covid-19 cases on Saturday afternoon, with deaths closing in on the 300,000 mark.