A medical professional holds a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine vial on the first day Orange County residents aged 65 and older can be vaccinated at a drive-through location at the Orange County Convention on December 29, 2020 in Orlando, Florida Center.
Paul Hennessy | NurPhoto | Getty Images
Moderna is increasing production of Covid-19 vaccines this year and increasing the minimum number of doses it expects to make by 20% to 600 million, the company announced Monday.
The company said it is working to produce up to 1 billion doses of its Covid-19 vaccine this year. The US is on track to receive 100 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine by the end of March and another 100 million by June, the Massachusetts-based company said in a statement.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued emergency approval for Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine to people 18 and older in the United States in December and began the first introduction of the drug.
The federal government has agreed to purchase 200 million doses of Moderna vaccine with the option of securing an additional 300 million doses, the company said.
Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine, which uses new mRNA technology and requires two doses four weeks apart, is also approved for use in Canada for people 18 years and older. The company has agreed to supply Canada with 40 million doses of its vaccine with the option to provide an additional 16 million.
“Our effectiveness in delivering early delivery to the US and Canadian governments and our ability to increase baseline production estimates for 2021 are both signals that our scaling up mRNA vaccine production is a success,” said Juan Andres, chief of engineering. Moderna’s operations in a statement. .
The US administration under the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed said it would distribute just under 6 million doses of Moderna vaccine after FDA approval for emergency use.
The roll-out of vaccines in the country has been slower than officials initially planned. So far, the US has dispensed just over 13 million doses of vaccine, but delivered only 4.2 million “ weapon injections, ” according to data last updated Saturday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Officials wanted to vaccinate 20 million people with the two doses of Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna by the end of December.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar defended the vaccine distribution of the surgery on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Monday. He said there has been a delay between when the doses are first made available, ordered by the states, and then delivered, all of which has been delayed by the holidays.
However, the US has seen a “rapid uptake” of the vaccine in recent days, Azar said.
“What we said our goal was to have 20 million first doses available in the month of December. They are available, “Azar said. It is unclear what Azar meant when he said the doses are” available, “as only 13 million have been distributed across America as of Saturday morning.