US is sitting on 20 million of vaccine doses the world needs
Hispanic woman getting coronavirus vaccine
More than 20 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine made by the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca are sitting idly in America.
The British-Swedish company has yet to request Food and Drug Administration authorization for the two-dose vaccine, and the company faces safety questions abroad and scrutiny from U.S. regulators.
According to reports, some senior administration officials believe that the administration should let them go abroad where they are desperately needed while others are not ready to relinquish them.
Meanwhile, The U.S. administered an average of 3.1 million Covid-19 shots per day over the last seven days and hit a new record over the weekend with more than 4 million shots administered in a single day as vaccine manufacturing picks up the pace and more mass vaccination sites open.
The pandemic has now killed more than 2.8 million people worldwide, upended economies and lifestyles everywhere and puts huge pressure on health care systems.
And on a global scale, it has not yet abated, despite more than 660 million shots having been administered worldwide.
In an annual report, Wednesday Amnesty International said that richer countries are failing a "rudimentary" test of global solidarity by hoarding Covid vaccines, "leaving countries with the fewest resources to face the worst health and human rights outcomes."
Hard-hit Brazil registered 4,195 deaths from the virus Tuesday, in the deadliest day of the pandemic yet for a country whose total reported toll is now nearly 337,000, second only to the United States.
Elsewhere in Latin America, Argentina notched a record high new daily cases with 20,870 infections, and across the border, in Chile, a coronavirus surge forced President Sebastian Pinera to postpone an election to choose a commission to rewrite the country's constitution.
Meanwhile, India, a vaccine-producing powerhouse, is struggling to contain a record surge in daily infections.
New Delhi on Tuesday imposed an immediate nighttime curfew, and financial hub Mumbai imposed similar measures.
A rare breakthrough in reopening international travel occurred however when Australia and New Zealand -- both largely free of the coronavirus -- announced a two-way, quarantine-free travel corridor starting April 18.
(With inputs from agencies)