A U.S. Army soldier from the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, immunizes Jacklina Mendez with the COVID-19 vaccine on the Miami Dade College North campus on March 9, 2021 in North Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
The Biden administration will allow a wider range of medical workers, including dentists, veterinarians, EMTs and medical students, to administer Covid-19 shots as part of its ‘wartime’ effort to get the midnight closer to normal.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is using its authority under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act to authorize more medical professionals and qualified students to administer the shots, the agency said in a statement Friday.
This means that dentists, EMTs, midwives, ophthalmologists, paramedics, medical assistants, podiatrists, respiratory therapists and veterinarians can start administering Covid-19 vaccines nationwide, according to HHS.
It also authorizes ‘medical students, nursing students and other health care students in the professions listed under the PREP Act, with proper training and professional supervision to serve as inmates’, the statement said.
The move comes after President Joe Biden announced Thursday night that he would order all U.S. states, tribes and territories to be eligible for all coronavirus vaccines by May 1.
The president said during his first speech to the country during the one-year anniversary of the pandemic that the goal is for Americans to gather in small groups to celebrate the fourth of July.
“This does not mean that everyone gets a chance immediately, but May 1st is the date on which every adult can be eligible for the chance,” Jeff Zients, Covid’s Tsar of Biden, said at a news conference on Friday. “By the end of May, we expect that there will be enough vaccine supply for all adults in this country.”
The US now administers an average of 2.2 million vaccines a day on a weekly basis. About 65% of Americans 65 and older are now vaccinated, Zients said. Just over a quarter of adults 18 years and older have now been given at least one shot of vaccine, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We are making progress, but there is more work to be done,” he said.
On Monday, the CDC issued its first guideline for people who have been fully vaccinated, saying they can now mix with other vaccinated inside without doing masks or social distancing.