Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci on Monday greeted the news about the vaccine against the deadly coronavirus that Pfizer Inc is developing as “a big deal”.
He said the United States could have vaccine doses ready to administer to people before the end of the year.
In an interview with CNN, Fauci said he believes he will stay in his current role for the time being and he has no intention of leaving.
President Donald Trump, who is attempting to contest his apparent loss in last week’s presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden in the courts, has publicly criticised Fauci and has not spoken to the country’s leader on fighting infectious diseases since early October, according to Fauci.
Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic raged across the United States last week, as the country elected a new president, with the daily number of new infections hitting record highs for four straight days.
More than 770 000 new cases were diagnosed in the week ended November 10, up 34% over the previous seven days.
Deaths increased 15% to more than 6 600 people, the highest one-week total since mid-August.
Health experts say deaths tend to increase four to six weeks after a surge in infections.
Cases are up in most of the country, including several states that fared relatively well over the summer and early fall including Maine, Vermont, Washington and Hawaii.
The upper Midwest continued to be a driver of new cases, with Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa and Indiana accounting for nearly one-third of all new cases in the country.
The number of new tests increased 9.3% last week, well behind the rate of new infections.
About 8.2% of tests came back positive for the new virus, the highest since early May.
