White House says 400,000 people so far got boosters at pharmacies

By Ahmed Aboulenein and Susan Heavey

At least 400,000 people in the United States have received booster doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine after U.S. health regulators cleared the third round of shots for millions of people, and a million more are seeking them, the White House said on Tuesday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week backed an additional dose of the vaccine for people aged 65 and older, adults with underlying medical conditions that put them at risk for severe COVID-19 and adults in high-risk working and institutional settings.

“Just over this past weekend at pharmacies alone, over 400,000 Americans received the additional protection of a booster and almost 1 million people have already scheduled their booster shots through pharmacies over the coming weeks,” White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters.

The United States had an average of 95,000 COVID-19 cases, 8,500 hospitalizations and more than 1,300 deaths in its most recent seven-day period, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at the same briefing.

Over 70 million eligible people remain unvaccinated, Walensky added, and only 30% of pregnant women have received the vaccine. Expecting mothers were included on the list of those eligible for boosters.

Reuters