More than 100 million people in the United States have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine, the National Public Health Agency reports as the Biden government works to speed up vaccinations nationwide.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 101 million sticks have been administered since the country’s vaccination began late last year.
Of those, more than 35 million people – 10.5 percent of the U.S. population – were considered “fully vaccinated,” the CDC said.
The U.S. has recorded the highest number of COVID-19 cases and coronavirus-related deaths in the world – more than 29.3 million infections and more than 532,000 deaths – but the number of new infections has declined nationwide.
President Joe Biden has vowed to take a tougher approach to tackling the pandemic than his predecessor, Donald Trump, who critics say has minimized the threat of the virus and promised 100 million COVID-19 jabs in to administer his first hundred days in office.
On Thursday, Biden said that all adults are eligible for a jab by May 1 and that he hopes the country will return to a sense of normalcy during the Independence Day holiday on July 4.
He had earlier said the US would have enough vaccine doses to vaccinate each adult by the end of that month, as he had announced that production of a newly approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine had been increased.
Biden also said that on his 60th day in office, he will achieve his goal of delivering 100 million jabs. “No other country in the world has done this. None, ”he said.
However, public health experts have warned that while vaccinations are accelerating, people need to maintain physical distance and follow public health guidelines to limit the possible spread of the virus.
Their warnings come as several U.S. states, including Texas, have announced plans to reopen businesses and lift mask mandates amid an economic downturn caused by the pandemic.
The Associated Press news agency reported that as COVID-19 infections declined nationally, governors in more than half of the states had taken steps to end or alleviate restrictions in the past two weeks.
Some capacity constraints ended Friday in Maryland and Oklahoma, the news agency said, while Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and Wyoming eased restrictions in the coming week.
On Thursday, Biden signed a $ 1.9 billion COVID-19 bill into law that, according to his government, would set the struggling U.S. economy in motion.
The new law provides for the distribution of $ 1,400 in direct payments to 160 million U.S. citizens, including provisions. The US Treasury Department is expected to start sending out the checks this weekend.
“This historic piece of legislation is about rebuilding the backbone of this country,” Biden told the Oval Office before signing the bill.
Vaccine inequality
Biden’s pressure to vaccinate Americans quickly also comes because human rights groups worldwide are demanding more vaccination on vaccines, as richer countries insure millions of doses for their citizens, while poorer countries lag behind.
South Africa, India and more than 100 other countries also this week called on the World Trade Organization (WTO) to temporarily waive patents for COVID-19 vaccines so that they can vaccinate their population.
Amnesty International said in a statement on Thursday that billions of people were at risk of not getting a single COVID-19 sting this year.
The group said rich countries bought the most COVID-19 vaccines, despite only 16 percent of the world’s population. The same countries have so far administered 60 percent of the doses, while 100 countries have yet to vaccinate a single person.
‘Who is accessing a COVID-19 vaccine, when and at what price, is one of the most important and contentious questions facing our societies today. But the answers are shaped by the interests of powerful states and companies, ”said Stephen Cockburn, Amnesty’s head of economics and social justice.
‘So far, they have created a dangerous situation with global inequalities in access to vaccines getting out of control. A few rich countries are racing ahead, while the rest of the world is struggling to get off the starting line. ‘