The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Committee (CDC) is going to postpone voting to figure out who will first receive the coronavirus vaccine on a priority basis, CNN reported.

The committee was supposed to conduct voting on Tuesday. CDC also planned to guide states on the distribution of vaccines across the US after voting.

According to a committee member William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the vote was delayed as the committee is still studying the issue.

Schaffner said as cited in the Wall Street Journal report: “The working group has not fully worked out its plan to present to Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) today, so the CDC has decided not to ask ACIP to vote today.”

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Schaffner also revealed that the group had agreed in general that the first batch of the vaccine will be given to frontline healthcare workers.

He added that it is still unclear whether the net batch will be given to the elderly or people with co-morbidity, who are at a major risk of developing severe symptoms of the virus, or if it should be essential workers.

Schaffner said he did not know when the working group will come up with a plan for who should get the vaccine first.

“I’m sure the states would be assisted in their planning if they could rather quickly be given a prioritisation scheme,” he said.

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