The US administered 300million Covid-19 shots in 150 days, President Joe Biden announced on Friday afternoon in an update on the country’s pandemic response.
Speaking from the State Dining Room of the White House, Biden uttered the accomplishment, twice: ‘300 million shots in arms in just 150 days’.
‘This is an important milestone and it just didn’t happen on it’s own or by chance,’ Biden said. ‘It took the ingenuity of scientists, full capacity of American companies… together we built an unparalleled vaccination program and managed one of the biggest and most complicated challenges in American history.’
Biden said that 150 days ago, the nation did not have enough vaccine supply for all Americans or the infrastructure to administer the jabs.
‘But we turned it around together by acting quickly and aggressively and equitably,’ Biden said, and mentioned his announcement from last week that the US will donate 500million vaccines to the world.
The president seemed to scale back on urging Americans to reach his goal to have 70% of adults with at least one coronavirus shot and 160million adults fully vaccinated by July 4. The US appears unlikely to achieve his target by the holiday.
Currently, 65% of adults have received at least one vaccine and about 147.8million are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Only 14 states and Washington, DC, have hit the 70% mark.
However, the Biden administration is still planning to host a celebration at the White House South Lawn for thousands of essential workers and military families on the July 4 holiday to signal the country’s ‘independence from the virus’, a White House official told CNN.
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