United States President, Joe Biden has announced that the country will have enough coronavirus vaccines for 300 million Americans by the end of July.
Biden said this on Thursday during a visit to the National Institutes of Health, adding that his administration had finalised deals for 100 million more Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses, as well as 100 million more from Moderna.
The announcement was the centerpiece of an emotional address from Biden, who made a point of speaking through his mask as he called it a “patriotic responsibility” to wear one.
He expressed;
We’ve now purchased enough vaccine supplies to vaccinate all Americans. Now we’re working to get those vaccines into the arms of millions of people.
Additionally, Biden said, Pfizer and Moderna have agreed to expedite the delivery of 100 million doses each by a month moving them up to May instead of June.
He stressed;
That’s a month faster. That means lives will be saved. That means we’re now on track to have enough supply for 300 million Americans.
The push to increase the supply is part of the “around the clock work” of the new administration and the nation’s leading health care officials, the US President said.
He noted;
In just three weeks we’ve deployed over 1,000 federal staff at vaccination sites around the country.
He also noted that he was misled about the true supply of vaccines obtained by former President Trump administration.
Biden stated;
My predecessor, to be very blunt about it, did not do his job. We won’t have everything fixed for a while. But we’re going to fix it.
What I was upset with was not having all the facts that were available to the last outfit. We were under the distinct impression there were significantly more vaccines kavailable to begin to be distributed.
Last month, Biden said he was directing the federal government to secure the additional doses on top of 400 million ordered during the Trump administration.
With the new order in place, the U.S. will have enough supply to fully vaccinate 300 million people with the two-dose vaccines.
