President Joe Biden on Tuesday will set a new goal of administering at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose to 70% of the US adult population and having 160 million US adults fully vaccinated by July 4, according to senior administration officials.
To meet this goal, Biden will direct tens of thousands of pharmacies participating in the federal pharmacy program to offer walk-in appointments and redirect Federal Emergency Management Agency resources to support more pop-up clinics, smaller community vaccination sites and more mobile clinics, the officials said.
As of Tuesday, more than 105 million Americans have been fully vaccinated, according to data from the US Centers Disease Control and Prevention, and 147 million Americans have had at least one dose of vaccine. Biden's new goal will require nearly 100 million additional shots in arms over the next 60 days, the official said.
The moves come as the Biden administration races to get shots in arms as variants spread throughout the country and threaten to derail the nation's progress in the fight against the pandemic.
After spending months focused on ramping up supply and distribution of the vaccines, the White House is now working to combat vaccine hesitancy. Tuesday's announcements are the latest efforts to build confidence in the safety and efficacy of the three Covid-19 vaccines that have been cleared for use in the United States.
Biden will speak on Tuesday about making access to vaccinations more convenient, supporting community vaccine education and local outreach efforts and reaching those in rural communities in the administration's Covid-19 response.
The President will announce nearly $250 million in funding for community-based organizations to hire and mobilize community outreach workers, community health workers, social support specialists, and others to increase access to the Covid-19 vaccines for those hardest-hit by the pandemic.
Biden will also announce more than $130 million in funding to improve vaccine education and information and to work on reducing health disparities in underserved communities.
Nearly $250 million will be immediately awarded to states, territories and certain large city governments to fund the next phase of their vaccine outreach efforts. More than $100 million in duding will go to approximately 4,600 rural health clinics across the country to support vaccine outreach in rural communities.
In addition, nearly $860 million in funding will go toward supporting rural health clinics and rural hospitals in broadening their Covid-19 testing and mitigation capacity in order to stop the spread of the virus.
More info:
Biden sets goal of administering at least one Covid-19 vaccine shot to 70% of US adult population by July 4
President Joe Biden on Tuesday set a new goal of administering at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose to 70% of the US adult population and having 160 million US adults fully vaccinated by July 4.
www.cnn.com
No one knows the current state of vaccinations better than Biden and the current WH Covid task force, so I am hopeful that this can get done even with a high amount of adults hesitant. Lots of this goes towards reducing hesitancy, so we will have to see the effects.