CDC Approves Panel Recommendations on COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution

(Reuters) The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday approved an advisory panel’s recommendations that those first in line to get COVID-19 vaccines should be healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities.

The recommendation covers roughly 21 million healthcare workers in the United States and 3 million residents of long-term care facilities, which have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic.

The CDC said earlier this week that most state and local jurisdictions expect to be able to vaccinate their healthcare workers within three weeks of receiving the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. (Reporting by Julie D Steenhuysen in Chicago and Dania Nadeem in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)