Feb. 10 COVID-19 update: 2,976 new cases; 119 deaths; 13.8% positive test rate

Staff reports | An initial 10 million vaccine doses are set to be delivered nationally beginning Feb. 21 to health care providers once the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gives the green light to vaccinations for children younger than 5.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have the doses on standby, with the first half of the batch set to be made available Feb. 21, just a week after the FDA’s emergency-use recommendation is expected, according to a report by The Washington Post. The federal government has secured enough of a supply for all of the nation’s 18 million children between the age of 6 months and 4 years, according to a Feb. 9 briefing by White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients.

FDA advisers said they will be taking clinical trial data submitted by Pfizer and BioNTech on Tuesday into discussion prior to their recommendation, according to reports from The Washington Post. The CDC must give final approval for the vaccine doses before the vaccine can be administered.

Health provider jurisdictions are responsible for ordering vaccine doses. The number of doses available to each state is not yet available, but Zients’ report said dashboards would be developed to enable jurisdictions to view order thresholds.

Latest COVID-19 data

South Carolina health officials on Thursday reported 2,976 total new cases of COVID-19, with 1,647 confirmed. They also reported 119 new deaths, 87 of which were confirmed.

With 12,303 tests reported Thursday, 13.8% were positive, less than half the positivity rate from the percentage reported yesterday.