U.S. purchases additional 200M vaccines, Biden says almost every American will be inoculated by July
Posted February 11, 2021 5:16 pm.
Last Updated February 11, 2021 5:28 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
U.S. President Joe Biden announced Thursday that America has secured 200-million vaccine doses promising that every American that wishes to be treated will get a vaccine by July.
The U.S. will receive 100-million doses of Moderna and 100-million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine, the President confirmed.
The U.S. is on pace to exceed Biden’s goal of administering 100 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office, with more than 26 million shots delivered in his first three weeks.
Meanwhile, Biden is moving to ease supply bottlenecks and ensure the nation has enough of the current two-dose vaccines to protect 300 million Americans by the end of summer.
Speaking with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease specialist, Biden emphasized that his administration is doing everything possible to increase the vaccine supply and the country’s capacity to deliver injections into arms.
“It’s been a hell of a learning process,” Biden said.
Biden toured the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory at the sprawling National Institutes of Health complex just outside Washington that created the COVID-19 vaccine now manufactured by Moderna and being rolled out in the U.S. and other countries.
The U.S. is currently is vaccinating its population at nine times the rate in Canada.
After significant disruptions, which saw Canada receive zero vaccine doses a few weeks ago, Justin Trudeau said that should change in the coming weeks and months ahead.
Federal officials said over the next month, Pfizer will deliver roughly 1.8-million doses and Moderna has scheduled a shipment of 168,000 for the end of February.
While Pfizer appears on track to meet its target for the end of March, Moderna is still short 1.3-million doses. Major-Gen. Dany Fortin said a month-long slowdown in Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine deliveries should end next week, with the single biggest shipment of vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech to date.
“The provinces have solid plans for health human resource capacity in terms of the equipment, coaching enabling equipment, that’s that will be positioned and re-prioritized accordingly,” said Fortin.
“So we’re in a good place and will have additional coordination in the coming weeks leading into the month of April.”
In early February, Trudeau said they will succeed in inoculating the population despite “momentary disruptions” in the supply of COVID-19 vaccines and is working closely with the new U.S. administration to fight the disease.
Trudeau’s government has faced immense pressure in recent weeks over the slow rollout of the vaccination program, caused in part by Pfizer’s delivery delay and a temporary slowdown of Moderna doses.
With files from 680 NEWS Parliament Hill reporter Cormac Mac Sweeney and The Associated Press
