PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — President Joe Biden has set a deadline to make all adults in the United States eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine by April 19.
The expanded eligibility comes as the U.S. hits a vaccine milestone. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Sunday that half of all American adults have now gotten at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
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According to data from the CDC, nearly 130 million American adults have gotten at least one dose, good for 50.4% of the country’s adult population. Nearly 84 million, or close to one-third of all adults, are fully vaccinated.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical advisor, sounded an optimistic note on Sunday.
"Hang in there a bit longer. I believe we will be okay," he said on CBS’ Face the Nation. "We will reach the point where we’ll be able to get back to doing things the way we did before, but we’re gonna have to make sure that we get as many people vaccinated as we possibly can."
The Johnson & Johnson single-shot vaccine is still on pause while a committee of expert advisers studies six cases of people experiencing an extremely rare side effect of severe blood clots and low blood platelets. U.S. health officials stress how rare the side effect is, affecting fewer than one in 1 million people.
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Fauci said he expects the country will resume using the J&J vaccine, with some sort of limitation.
“I don’t know what that’s gonna be, but one of the possibilities would be to bring them back but to do it with some form of restriction or some form of warning. But I think by Friday we’re gonna know an answer to that,” Fauci said.
Fauci and other health officials continue to stress vigilance as the country is averaging around 70,000 new COVID-19 cases a day.
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