WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The first known U.S. case of an extremely contagious coronavirus variant was detected in Colorado on Tuesday and Joe Biden, president-elect, said it could take most Americans years to get vaccinated against the virus at the current spread. word.
Biden’s prediction of a gloomy winter appears to be lowering the public’s expectations that the pandemic will be imminent after he takes office on January 20, while also sending a message to Congress that his government is spending significantly wants to increase to accelerate, expand the distribution of vaccines. provide testing and funding to states to help reopen schools.
Biden, a Democrat, said about 2 million people have been vaccinated, less than the 20 million that outgoing Republican President Donald Trump promised by the end of the year. Biden defeated Trump in an election in November.
“As I have long feared and warned, efforts to distribute and administer the vaccine are not progressing as they should,” said Biden in Wilmington, Delaware. At the current rate, “it will take years, not months, to vaccinate the American people.”
Shortly after his remarks, Colorado Governor Jared Polis announced on Twitter that his state has discovered a case of a highly contagious coronavirus variant B.1.1.7 that was first detected in the UK.
Today we discovered Colorado’s first case of the COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7, the same variant discovered in the United Kingdom.
The health and safety of Coloradans is our top priority and we will be monitoring this matter as well as all COVID-19 indicators very closely. pic.twitter.com/fjyq7QhzBi
– Governor Jared Polis (@GovofCO) 29 December 2020
Biden’s goal of securing 100 million shots at the end of his 100th day in office would mean that ‘five to six times the current rate increases to 1 million shots per day’, Biden said, it is required of Congress to approve it. additional funding.
“Even with the improvement, even if we increase the rate of vaccinations to 1 million shots a day, it will still take months to get the majority of the American population vaccinated,” he said. He predicted that the situation might only improve “until March”.
Biden also said he intends to appeal to the Defense Production Act, which gives the president the power to expand industrial production of key materials or products for national security or other reasons, to produce materials needed for the vaccine.
Trump himself appealed to the law during the pandemic.
To reopen schools safely, Biden said Congress would have to provide money for extra transportation so students can maintain social distance and better ventilation in school buildings.
Congress should also help make COVID-19 tests more readily available and pay for protective equipment for health workers, Biden added.
Harris gets the vaccine
Earlier in the day, Elected Vice President Kamala Harris received a COVID-19 vaccination live on television in an effort to boost confidence in the vaccination, even while warning that it would take months before it was available to all. .
Harris, who is a black and Asian American, received the Modern COVID-19 vaccine from a nurse wearing a mask and a face shield in a medical center in southeastern Washington.
The Biden team stressed the importance of encouraging the distribution and vaccination of vaccines in non-white groups, especially by the coronavirus.
Biden has vowed to make it a top priority in fighting the coronavirus, which has infected more than 19 million people in the United States and killed more than 334,000 people. He received his first dose of the vaccine live on television last week. Two doses are required for full protection.
Trump, who had COVID-19 in October, often downplayed the severity of the pandemic and oversaw a response that many health experts say is disorganized and cavalier and has sometimes ignored the science behind disease transmission.
Biden reiterates his call for people to wear masks and listen to the advice of medical experts so as not to spread infection.
Dr. Atul Gawande, a member of Biden’s advisory board COVID-19, told CBS News that the transition team does not yet have all the information needed to understand the bottlenecks that hamper the distribution of vaccines.
He said the Trump administration may have set unrealistic expectations that anyone who wants to be vaccinated can do so by the end of June 2021.
Separately on Tuesday, U.S. Senate Leader Mitch McConnell cast a vote on Trump’s call to increase COVID-19 relief tests for Americans to $ 2,000, in a rare challenge to his fellow Republican. Biden said he prefers raising an already approved $ 600.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Susan Heavey, Lisa Lambert and David Brunnstrom; Writing by David Brunnstrom and Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Jonathan Oatis and Howard Goller)