How to Deal with New COVID-19 Variants

As countries race to vaccinate people against COVID-19, new variants of the coronavirus are again raising concerns around the world.

In the U.S., about 1.7 million people are receiving shots from drug makers Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna each day. The two vaccines were approved for emergency use in late 2020 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The drugs have also received permission for emergency use in Europe, South Korea and Japan..

Sputnik V, a vaccine developed by Russia's Ministry of Health is being given to people in Russia, Belarus, Venezuela and other countries. China's Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines have received emergency use permission in China, United Arab Emirates, Brazil and Egypt.

Several other vaccines, including those from drug makers Johnson & Johnson and Oxford-AstraZeneca, are awaiting decisions from health officials in some countries. At the same time, the United Nations-backed COVAX program wants to provide 2 billion vaccine treatments to lower-income countries around the world to fight the virus.