The U.S. will start vaccinating children below the age of 5 starting this week, after regulatory agencies approved the shots developed by Moderna and Pfizer and BioNTech over the weekend. Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the vaccines for the littlest children, and the final signoff came hours later from Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the agency’s director, as the Associated Press reported. “We know millions of parents and caregivers are eager to get their young children vaccinated, and with today’s decision, they can,” Walensky said in a statement.
U.S. cases are averaging 96,417 a day, down 3% from two weeks ago, according to a New York Times tracker. The country is averaging 30,076 hospitalizations a day, up 3% from two weeks ago. The daily death toll stands at 311 on average, up 17% from two weeks ago. On a global basis, total cases are now above 539.7 million. Total deaths are above 6.32 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, with the U.S. still leading the way with 86.3 million cases and 1,013,493 deaths.
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