Chennai: The United States is all set to begin its coronavirus vaccination drive from today.
Sunday saw the first trucks carrying the Covid-19 vaccine for widespread use in the United States pulling out of a Michigan manufacturing facility.
Mask-wearing workers at a Pfizer factory in Michigan began packing the first shipments of its vaccine in dry ice shortly. Three trucks carrying pallets of boxed, refrigerated vaccines rolled away from the central Michigan facility, escorted by body armor-clad security officers in a pickup truck and a SUV.
The shipments of the vaccine will set in motion the biggest vaccination effort in American history at a critical juncture of the pandemic that has killed 1.6 million and infected 71 million worldwide.
In a novel process that will need to become daily routine, workers removed pizza-boxed sized cartons containing vaccine vials from a freezer. They placed them in large, blue coolers, before these were boxed and labeled, as shown on a network television video feed.
Workers clapped and whistled as the first boxes headed to the trucks.
Although the federal government is coordinating distribution efforts, states have the final decision over who gets the first shots. The federal government is sending the first shipments to more than 600 locations.