The Biden administration is increasing the number of doses of Covid-19 sent to countries per week, sending out 13.5 million doses this week and doubling the number going to retail pharmacies, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday.
As of last week, the administration is sending out 11 million doses to states every week. In total, Psaki noted that the government has increased the number of doses sent to states weekly by 57% since President Joe Biden was inaugurated on January 20th.
Psaki also announced that the White House is doubling the number of doses sent directly to retail pharmacies across the country, expanding it from 1 million doses sent to 6,500 pharmacies last week. Psaki said the White House will in future send 2 million doses a week to stores and plans to eventually expand to 40,000 stores nationwide.
“This program will expand access to neighborhoods across the country so people can call and make an appointment and get their chance comfortably and quickly,” she said. “This is a critical, critical part of our plan.”
The administration has gradually announced an increase in the amount of vaccine distributed each week as new distribution channels are opened, such as pharmacies, community health centers and federal vaccination centers. After a slower-than-expected initial launch of the vaccine, many states now say the lack of supply from the federal government is the biggest limitation.
The rate of vaccination across the country has increased over the past few weeks, and the difference between doses distributed and doses administered has decreased. More than 52.8 million doses were administered as of Sunday, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, out of the 70 million doses delivered to states.
Biden announced last week that the U.S. had secured 100 million more doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 100 million more of the Moderna vaccine, increasing the total U.S. supply to 600 million doses. The Food and Drug Administration is also expected to authorize Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use only later this month.
This is probably not an immediate blessing for the supply, but it will help increase the number of doses that Americans have available in late spring and summer. White House health adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that the vaccine will be available to any American who wants it by May, slightly later than his previous prediction to open access to the vaccine in April.
“It could take until June, July and August to finally get everyone vaccinated,” he said. told CNN. “So when you hear how long it’s going to take to get the overwhelming majority of the population vaccinated, I think no one agrees that it’s going to be fine until the end of the summer, and we start in early fall.”