First COVID Vaccine Administered in US, Trump Congratulates World

“First Vaccine Administered. Congratulations USA! Congratulations WORLD!” Trump tweeted.

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Outgoing US President Donald Trump on Monday, 14 December, tweeted saying that the first vaccine for COVID-19 has been administered in the country.

"First Vaccine Administered. Congratulations USA! Congratulations WORLD!" he said.

On 11 December, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine for emergency use in the country.

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“The governors decide where the vaccines go and stay and who gets them first. We want our senior citizens, healthcare workers and first respondents to be the first in line,” Trump had said then.

Who’s the First Person To Get the Shot?

A nurse in New York, Sandra Lindsay, became the first person in the United States to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on Monday, reported AFP.

Lindsay, a critical care nurse at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York, said that the jab didn’t feel any different from taking any other vaccine.

Governor Andrew Cuomo, while reminding people to keep following social distancing guidelines, said that he hoped the vaccine would give Lindsay and other frontline healthcare workers a sense of safety.

“I believe this is the weapon that will end the war,” Governor Andrew Cuomo was quoted as saying by The New York Times, at a news conference on Monday morning.

The US is the country worst-affected by COVID-19, both in terms of the number of recorded infections as well as deaths. More than 16.2 million cases have been reported in the country, with the death toll standing close to 3,00,000.

(With inputs from AFP and The New York Times)