Watch live: World Health Organization holds press conference on the coronavirus outbreak as the U.S. is poised to clear Pfizer vaccine
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World Health Organization officials are holding a press conference on Friday to update the public on the coronavirus outbreak that has infected more than 69.7 million people across the world as governments across the world start rolling out the first vaccines.
The briefing comes as U.S. regulators say the authorization of Pfizer‘s Covid-19 vaccine is imminent. On Thursday evening, a panel of advisors to the Food and Drug Administration overwhelmingly endorsed emergency authorization of Pfizer’s vaccine for use in all people older than 15. The U.K., Canada and Bahrain have already approved the vaccine for most adults.
It could not come at a more urgent time. More Americans are now dying of the disease than at any other point in the pandemic. The country reported more than 224,400 new cases of the virus on Thursday and more than 2,700 people in the country died of Covid-19, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last week expressed concern over the “growing perception that the pandemic is over.”
Tedros said that while the positive news around vaccine development “gives us all a lift,” the public must continue to adhere to public health guidance.
Read CNBC’s live updates to see the latest news on the Covid-19 outbreak.
