COVID-19 funding impasse looms in America amid rising infections: CNN

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Xinhua) -- A leading U.S. health expert has warned that the country will not be able to buy enough COVID-19 vaccines for every American who wants a booster later this year if Congress would not approve more funding.

"I want to make sure we have enough resources that we can buy enough vaccines for every American who wants one. I think that is absolutely critical. We do not have the resources to do that right now," Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, was quoted by CNN as saying on Wednesday.

"Without additional funding from Congress, we will not be able to buy enough vaccines for every American who wants one, once these new generation of vaccines come out in the fall and winter," Jha said, adding: "Every day we wait, every week we wait, we just fall a little further behind in line."

The United States has reported more than 83 million COVID-19 cases and 1 million deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

About three-quarters of the deaths are among seniors, including more than a quarter among people aged 85 and older, according to data of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Meanwhile, the risk of dying from the coronavirus has been about two times higher for Blacks, Hispanics and American Indians than in white populations in the United States.

According to an earlier report of CNN, COVID-19 infections are rising again across the United States.

"New York City reached the high COVID-19 alert level, indicating high community spread and substantial pressure on the health care system," the report said.