The United States and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) have reached another deal with will supply w the country will an additional 100 million Pfizer-BioNTech (NASDAQ: BNTX) coronavirus vaccines by July next year. The agreement brings that total number of doses to be delivered to the U.S to 200 million, which allow for 100 million vaccinations.
Pfizer expects to deliver at least 70 million doses by June 30, with the rest of the doses making their way to the U.S. no later than July 31. The U.S. government will pay $1.95 billion for the shots, bring the country's total paid to Pfizer to almost $4 billion.
"Secring more doses from Pfizer and BioNTech for delivery in the second quarter of 2021 further expands our supply of doses across the Operations Warp Speed portfolio," said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azr in a statement. "This new federal purchase can give Americans even more confidence that we will have enough supply to vaccinate every American who wants it by June 2021."
Despite the federal government's optimism surrounding a broad and swift vaccination campaign heading into the early new year, there have been some delays on actually administering vaccines after they are distributed throughout the country.
According to the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (C.D.C.), just over one million doses of a coronavirus vaccine have been administered as of Wednesday, a small step towards the federal government's goal of vaccinating 20 million Americans by the end of the year.
While this is still an extraordinary feat due to the rapid development of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) vaccine--both of which were recently approved for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration--it is far less than the 9,465,725 vaccine doses that have been distributed.
The C.D.C. notes that hospital data has yet to be reported and there have been lags in reporting shots given of both vaccines. But, the administration speed has slowed significantly since the first week where 614,000 shots were given from the 2.9 million shipped.
There is not one overarching factor behind the delay, but small logistics issues with shipping the ulta-cold shot throughout the nation and lack of funding to administration programs. Congress's latest stimulus package--which passed both chambers and is awaiting President Donald Trump's signature to become a law--seeks to remedy funding issues through $70 billion allotted for broad health measures that include assisting federal, state and local government vaccine campaigns.
The government still maintains its goal of 100 million administered Pfizer and Moderna shots by March 1. This goal may be reliant on a smooth transition between the Trump administration and President-elect Joe Biden's administration, as well as the overall status of the country's public health system as coronavirus cases continue to surge.