A screenshot taken on May 18, 2020, from the American health-oriented news website STAT shows the title and picture of its coverage about the U.S. biotech company Moderna's potential vaccine against the COVID-19. (Xinhua)
An advisory committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) met on Thursday and voted in favor of authorizing American drugmaker Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use.
It is the second COVID-19 vaccine in the country, following the approval of a vaccine developed by American drugmaker Pfizer in partnership with German company BioNTech.
The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee of the FDA voted 20-0 with one abstention to support the agency issuing emergency use authorization to the vaccine mRNA-1273.
FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn is expected to authorize the vaccine soon after, with delivery to begin nationwide next Monday, according to U.S. media reports.
The FDA authorized Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use last Friday. The country started its COVID-19 vaccine rollout nationwide on Monday.
The massive vaccine rollout came as the country's COVID-19 death toll surpassed 300,000, and single-day new cases, deaths as well as hospitalizations continued to set new records.
