The US approved the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine late on Friday.
"I am authorising the emergency use of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine," Denise Hinton, the Food and Drug Administration's chief scientist wrote in a letter to a Pfizer executive.
President Donald Trump immediately released a video on Twitter, where he hailed the development.
"The first vaccine will be administered in less than 24 hours," Trump said in a televised address released on Twitter.
FDA APPROVES PFIZER VACCINE FOR EMERGENCY USE!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2020
"Through our partnership with FedEx and UPS, we have already begun shipping the vaccine to every state and zip code in the country," he said, adding that governors would decide who would receive the shots first in their states.
The US is now the sixth country to approve the two-dose regimen, after Britain, Bahrain, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico.
Number of US infections soars
The approval comes as infections in the world's worst-hit country soar as never before, with the grim milestone of 300,000 confirmed deaths fast approaching.
The decision to approve capped a day of drama after it was widely reported in the US media that the White House had threatened to fire the FDA chief Stephen Hahn if he did not issue the approval on Friday.
Hahn disputed those reports but nonetheless gave the order, which was previously expected either over the weekend or early next week.
The US will now start shipping millions of doses to hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and long-term care facilities across the country.
The distribution is being overseen by a military general as part of Operation Warp Speed, but handled by private sector partners like FedEx who are using special boxes to manage the vaccine's cold storage requirement of -70 degrees Celsius.
.png?w=600)
