More than two-thirds of the corona vaccines distributed in the United States remain unused so far, US health officials said Monday.
Governors of New York and Florida have already announced that they will punish hospitals for not using the available vaccines quickly enough.
The federal government has now distributed about 15 million doses of corona vaccine, but only about 4.5 million have been administered, the US Center for Disease Prevention CDC announced Monday. This means that the US is currently far behind schedule with the vaccination.
The aim was to have injected 20 million people by the end of last year. Public health officials do take into account that the pace will increase in the coming weeks.
In Florida, a state loved by retirees, and the state has given seniors priority for the vaccines. Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that hospitals that deliver the vaccines faster would receive more vaccines.
“Hospitals that do not perform well in vaccination will lose their supplies in favour of hospitals that do perform,” DeSantis said. Florida will also deploy a thousand additional nurses to speed up the vaccination process.
Of all countries in the world, the United States has been hit hardest by the corona pandemic. So far, nearly 21 million people have been infected, and more than 353,000 people diagnosed with the coronavirus have died in the US.