Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
President Joe Biden says 100 million Coronavirus vaccinations will be administered in 58 days, six weeks ahead of the 100-day target set at his inauguration on January 20.
Biden said on Thursday afternoon, “Tomorrow, we will hit 100 million doses that our administration has administered. But as I have always said, that’s just the floor. We will not stop until we beat this pandemic.”
The President said a new goal will be set next week.
Bolstered by the purchase of 800 million doses — including of the recently-approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine — and manufacturing deals, Biden has moved forward the goal of vaccinations for every adult American from the end of July to the end of May.
The US has reached a daily average of 2.5 million vaccinations. Almost 116 million doses have been administered since mid-December. About 29% of adults, including 2/3 of people over 65, have received at least one dose.
Biden: “Vaccine for Every Adult American by May 31”
Biden repeated his statement from last week that the US can return to near-normal by the July 4 holiday, adding his standard caution that Coronavirus measures — including the wearing of masks — need to be observed to ensure the goal is reached.
The US death toll is 539,968. Confirmed cases are 29,665,678, but the daily rise has fallen from a high of 300,619 on January 8 to about 60,000 now.
Biden’s chief medical advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said on Thursday morning that, despite the steep decline, the daily rate of new infections is still “much too high to be declaring victory”.
He cautioned that, with new variants of the virus, “It really is going to be a race between the vaccine and the potential surge.”
US to Send Vaccines to Canada and Mexico
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced plans to send 2.5 million doses of the Coronavirus vaccine to Mexico and 1.5 million to Canada.
Psaki said the delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has not yet been authorized for use in the US, is “not finalized yet, but that is our aim”.
The AstraZeneca version, developed at the UK’s Oxford University, is being administration in dozens of countries including Mexico and Canada.
Several European countries suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the past week, as a precautionary measure after a few recipients developed blood clots. However, on Thursday the European Medicines Agency declared the vaccine safe.
AstraZeneca said that a review of 17 million recipients of the vaccine found they were less likely than others to develop dangerous clots.
