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Vice President Mike Pence visits CDC for briefing on COVID-19 vaccine, timeline

ATLANTA — Vice President Mike Pence was in Georgia Friday to get a briefing on the progress of the COVID-19 vaccine at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pence was in town on the day that the Georgia Department of Health announced the single-day record for new cases, at just over 5,000.

Channel 2′s Tom Regan was at the CDC, where Pence was briefed on a national distribution plan for the vaccine.

“Thank you to the men and women of the CDC, who have literally poured out their lives over the past ten months into saving lives across America,” Pence said.

It’s projected there will be 30 to 50 million doses shipped out in the first phase of distribution later this month after the vaccines is approved by the FDA. The initial allotment for Georgia could be up to 400,000 doses.

The first phase will target doctors, nurses and other health care workers as well as those living in nursing homes and assisted care facilities.

Pence said that after the FDA approves the vaccine around Dec. 14, they will begin shipping it across the country within 48 hours.

A small number of protesters gathered outside the CDC to denounce the vice president’s visit.

“Trump and Pence didn’t cause the pandemic, but they made it a lot worse than it needed to be,” one protester said.

Following the visit, the vice president headed to Savannah to campaign for Loeffler and Perdue.

Pence has visited Georgia several times over the last few months, campaigning for President Trump for the election and Perdue and Loeffler for the senate runoff race.

The vice president’s trip highlights a critical juncture both for the Republican Party and for Pence, as the vice president tries to balance his own political future with his loyalties to a president who has yet to concede defeat.

While Pence has joined President Donald Trump in not yet conceding to Biden, the vice president held fast to more careful language than the president’s repeated and baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.

Republicans have already won 50 Senate seats for the new Congress, and need one more for control. A Democratic sweep of the Georgia runoffs would yield a 50-50 Senate, setting up Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote to tilt the chamber to Democrats.

Perdue led Ossoff in the general election but narrowly missed the majority that Georgia law requires to win statewide elections. Warnock and Loeffler were the top finishers in an all-party special election to fill the final two years of former Sen. Johnny Isakson’s term. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Loeffler to the post after Isakson announced his retirement last year.

The Associated Press was used in this report