Bottles for the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are ready to be primed for the opening of a mass vaccination site in New York’s Queens Ward, February 24, 2021.
Seth Little | Swimming pool | Reuters
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said on Tuesday that his company has ramped up production of its dual coronavirus vaccine and will be able to deliver a total of 300 million doses to the US ahead of schedule.
Bourla said on Twitter that Pfizer will be able to deliver 10% more doses to the US by the end of May than it previously agreed – up to 220 million from 200 million.
The company will be able to deliver the full 300 million it agreed to deliver to the US at the end of July, two weeks earlier, Bourla said.
“In the fight against COVID-19, we are doing this together,” he tweeted.
The announcement came when dozens of states temporarily stopped administering Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose Covid vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration advised them to do so on Tuesday after six women in the US developed a rare blood clotting disorder in which one woman died and another in critical condition.
Some states, such as New York, said they will use Pfizer’s vaccine instead of the J&J shot for appointments that were already scheduled.