President Biden on Thursday upped his administration’s goal on coronavirus vaccinations, saying he wants to get 200 million shots in Americans’ arms by the end of his first 100 days in office.
The U.S. hit Mr. Biden’s initial goal of facilitating 100 million vaccine shots in his first 100 days, or by late April, last week.
“We will, by my 100th day in office, have administered 200 million shots in people’s arms,” Mr. Biden said at the top of his first formal press conference since taking office. “I know it’s ambitious — twice our original goal — but no other country in the world has even come close.”
Mr. Biden said that nearly half of K-8 schools in the country are open full-time for in-person learning — well on the way to his goal of getting a majority of them open within his first 100 days in office.
There have been more than 130 million vaccine doses administered in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and prevention.
The seven-day moving average of doses administered and reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently topped 2 million.
The daily average was already approaching 1 million on Jan. 20, the day Mr. Biden was sworn into office.
The administration announced earlier Thursday that it would put close to $10 billion to expand vaccine availability and launch other COVID-19-related initiatives in underserved communities.
The department of Health and Human Services plans to use $6 billion from the recently enacted $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package to put into community health centers.
HHS and CDC also plan to direct $3 billion to states and cities in a bid to get local health departments to launch new programs designed to boost vaccine access, with a focus on minority communities and rural areas.
There will be $330 million for community health workers to bolster COVID-19 prevention and control efforts.
The administration will also partner with dialysis treatment centers to get vaccines to dialysis patients and health care workers.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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