President Joe Biden says the U.S. has secured enough coronavirus vaccine doses to vaccinate "all Americans."
The president made the remarks Thursday, part of an update on his administration’s COVID-19 response at the National Institutes of Health. He said the Department of Health and Human Services had just purchased of 200 million additional vaccines - 100 million of which are the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the other half Moderna’s vaccine.
The two vaccines are the only approved for emergency use in the country.
A third, produced by Johnson & Johnson, is under review for emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration now.
A shipment of 200 million vaccines, originally scheduled for a later delivery, will now be in the U.S. by the end of July, and another 100 million doses will be expedited for a May arrival, Biden added.
Put together, the expected shipments of the two-dose vaccines increase U.S. supply by 50 percent - covering 300 million people.
"It may not sound like the urgent progress we need, but let’s be clear. When I took office three weeks ago, this country did not have a plan or enough vaccines or people to vaccinate Americans…at any point in 2021," he said.
The president has said his goal is to administer 100 million vaccines in his administration’s first 100 days. Over 473,000 people have died in the U.S. from complications related to COVID-19.
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