US ramps up coronavirus vaccination programme as second jab nears approval

Sandra Lindsay, a nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Centre, is inoculated with the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine by Dr Michelle Chester (Mark Lennihan/Pool/AP)

Hundreds more US hospitals are to begin vaccinating their workers on Tuesday as regulators issued a positive review of a second jab.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said its preliminary analysis confirmed the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine developed by Moderna and the National Institutes of Health, bringing it to the cusp of US authorisation.