Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine got the greenlight from a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee Thursday, paving the way for authorization of a second shot aimed at slowing a pandemic that has killed nearly 310,000 people in the United States.
The news came as California became the epicenter of the outbreak in the U.S., posting in the past 48 hours more than 100,000 new infections and setting a new daily death record. In Southern California, a region that includes Los Angeles and San Diego, ICU capacity fell to 0 percent on Thursday.
Officials in multiple states said they were alerted that their second shipments of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine next week had been reduced.
Rep. Cedric L. Richmond (D-La.), tapped by Biden to be a White House senior adviser, has tested positive for the coronavirus.
French President Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for the coronavirus.
Wednesday was the deadliest day for the United States to date, with at least 3,367 fatalities reported across the country.