US has 2 million doses of coronavirus vaccine, claims Trump

US President Donald Trump on Friday claimed that the United States has already produced two million vaccine doses for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) that are “ready to go” if they “check out for safety”.

“There has been tremendous progress with regard to vaccines. In fact, we are ready to act with regard to transportation and logistics. We have more than 2 million coronavirus vaccine doses. Ready for dispatch if they pass a safety check,” said Trump during a briefing at the White House.

Speaking about the opening of the US economy, Trump said that the cities like Georgia, Florida, South Carolina have opened up and are now having good business in comparison to others, which are still under lockdown.

The coronavirus pandemic killed 922 people in the United States in the past 24 hours, according to figures released Friday by Johns Hopkins University.

The latest deaths bring the total in the United States to 109,042, and there have been more than 1.89 million cases, according to a real-time tally maintained by the Baltimore-based university at 8:30 pm (0030 GMT Saturday).

Some 491,000 people have recovered from the disease.

The United States has suffered by far the largest number of both COVID-19 deaths and infections.

US expert, Dr Donald Yealy of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center on Friday claimed that the novel coronavirus is now losing potency.

Addressing a press conference, UPMC chair of emergency medicine Dr Donald Yealy said that people seem to be contracting COVID-19 less easily and its cases appear to be appear to be less severe then when the pandemic first took hold in the US.

‘The virus may be changing,’ he said and added, ‘Some patterns suggest the potency is diminished.’

He noted that UPMC has successfully treated more than 500 coronavirus patients since March, and in recent weeks fewer patients are requiring ventilators to help them breathe.