The federal government will expand the number of pharmacies receiving shipments of the vaccines from 17,000 to 40,000 by mid-April, he said. The White House estimates that as a result, 90 percent of adults in the U.S. will have vaccination sites within 5 miles of their homes.
“We are still in a war with this deadly virus,” he said. “We’re bolstering our defenses, but this war is far from won.”
Biden called on governors to reinstate mask mandates and said some states should pause their reopening efforts.
The U.S. has been administering around 3 million vaccine shots a day over the past few days, said Jeffrey Zients, the White House Covid-19 coordinator. As of Monday, 73 percent of seniors had received their first doses and more than 1 in 3 adults had received their first doses.
Biden said the U.S. will open a dozen additional federally run mass vaccination centers and spend $100 million to get vaccinations to people with disabilities and those at high risk of dying from the virus.
Shannon Pettypiece is the senior White House reporter for NBCNews.com.
Category: Science
Source: NBC
