The first trucks carrying a COVID-19 vaccine for widespread use in the United States pulled out of a Michigan manufacturing facility Sunday, with the shots that are critical to stopping the nation's coronavirus outbreak destined to reach states a day later. Shipments of the Pfizer vaccine will set in motion the biggest vaccination effort in American history at a critical juncture of the pandemic that has killed 1.6 million and sickened 71 million worldwide.

Initially, about 3 million doses were expected to be sent out, and the priority is health care workers and nursing home residents as cases, hospitalisations and deaths soar in the US. With numbers likely to get worse over the holidays, the vaccine is offering a bright spot in the fight against COVID-19 that's killed nearly 3 lakh Americans.