The Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday morning a nearly $2 billion deal with Pfizer and BioNTech for 100 million doses of a potential vaccine. Under the agreement, the government can buy an additional 500 million doses and the vaccine would be provided to the public “at no cost.” Congress is still hammering out details of a second relief bill, which top lawmakers expect to pass in August.
California has reported a record spike in coronavirus cases and passed New York as the U.S. state with the most confirmed infections since the pandemic began. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is calling on the Trump administration to implement a federal mask mandate as local authorities in Washington, D.C. and Ohio issue orders requiring residents to wear masks in public spaces.
Here are some of today’s biggest developments:
The following data was compiled by Johns Hopkins University:
- Global cases: More than 15 million
- Global deaths: At least 618,061
- U.S. cases: More than 3.9 million
- U.S. deaths: At least 142,677
