U.S. Health Officials Hope New COVID Vaccine Rules Can Ease Latest Surge

The Trump administration moved on Tuesday to accelerate vaccinations of Americans against COVID-19, releasing the rest of the doses it had been keeping in reserve and recommending states immediately open inoculations to those aged 65 and over.

Federal and state health officials have scrambled in recent days to step up vaccination programs that had given shots to only 9.3 million Americans as coronavirus infections remain at record highs in many U.S. states nearly two weeks into the new year.

Many U.S. states had strict rules in place giving shots to healthcare workers and nursing home residents first, telling “non-essential workers” they might wait months for their turn.

“We’ve already distributed more vaccine than we have healthcare workers and people in nursing homes,” U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told ABC News. “We’ve got to get to more channels of administration.”

Roughly 27.5 million doses have been distributed by the U.S. government to…